As we went over on Monday, death permeates everything surrounds us, and will eventually befall you and everything you love. In that sense, it’s nothing to fear, but it’s also such an abstract concept full of unknowns that rote acceptance is hard. So, the Morbid Anatomy Museum is here to help with Death Cafe, an event where British funeral planner Louise de Winter, a kind of Mary Poppins of death, will chat with you about any topic on death you’d like to talk about.
Well okay, we’ll be honest and admit to not knowing if de Winter floats in through the front door with a magic flying umbrella, but you’ll have to excuse us for thinking all British people are like that due to our lack of exposure to them. On the other hand, she will be there to help the medicine of death go down with a spoonful of sugar both in the form of cake and comfort, on August 11 from 6pm to 8pm. De Winter told us over email that she sees the meetup as a positive thing and “a 12 step meeting for the soul,” so maybe the Mary Poppins thing isn’t totally out of bounds.
While sipping coffee and eating cake that you can buy at Morbid Anatomy’s cafe, de Winter will walk you through any questions you might have about death, so that you might make your limited time on this Earth more enjoyable. De Winter told us that her goal for the evening is “breaking the taboo” surrounding death, and that most of the conversation about a good death that she’s heard turns out to surround the idea of living a good life first.
We certainly support more honest conversation like this. After all, one day you’re out enjoying your bike ride on a nice fall day and the next thing you know you almost die when you get hit by a car. It can happen just that quick, so if you’re still afraid, this should be an enlightening evening.
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