I Blog Poetry and Prose

Blogs, Essays, Open Casket Funerals, & Viewings of the Body

Jalál (Glory), 7 Qudrat (Power) 175 B.E. - Saturday, November 10, 2018

FORUM

30-Day Blogging Challenge ON HIATUS  (13+) WDC's Longest Running Blog Competition - Hiatus #1786069 by Fivesixer

Do you consider blogging a form of personal essay writing? How are the two the same and different? Today, spend some time researching how to write a personal essay and, if you choose, take a stab at writing one of your own!

Is blogging a form of essay writing? Yes and no. I know that sounds like a paradox or a cop out, since blogs can cover any and every topic, its the only answer that makes sense to me. A blog post can cover an author's business, political beliefs, religious beliefs, hobby, life events, or anything else that strikes the author's muse. A blog entry can be formal or informal, like a personal essay. It can be written using any voice or point of view, although it is better to use a first person voice because readers are more likely to read, respond to, and follow one that uses a first person voice.

I recently posted a personal essay in "Memories of Snow"  "The Last Time I Saw My Grandfather"  giving one of the reasons I don't like open casket funerals. I prefer to remember a loved one, friend, or acquaintance as they looked in life rather than as they looked in a casket. This is, also, the reason I don't like going to "viewings of the body", and will avoid it if I can. While I don't intend to offend anyone, I think that open casket funerals and viewings of the body are barbarous.

I remember my Grandparents funerals, and the viewing of the bodies. When I was younger, I attended viewings of the body of the deceased. At one of the viewing, I don't remember which one, I had an epiphany. I looked at the face of the deceased, and realized that something was missing; that was not the person I knew before death. The facial features were the same, so it was the right body. It just that something was missing.

After leaving the funeral parlor, I went home read a prayer for the departed and meditated on the subject. The thing that was missing was the person's soul. The soul had ascended into the spiritual realm and left behind the body, the shell of its material and physical existence. Now if I go to a viewing or an open casket funeral, I will sign the book and talk to the family, but I won't look at the body.