Memento Mori

“Radical Mindfulness: Why Transforming Fear of Death is Politically Vital”

Dr. Rowe’s book is available from Amazon and other retailers. Here’s the blurb: Collecting insights from powerful thinkers across multiple traditions―including Black radicals, Indigenous resurgence theorists, terror management theorists, and Buddhist feminists― Rowe argues for the political importance of seemingly apolitical practices such as meditation and ritual. On their own, these strategies are not enough, … Read more“Radical Mindfulness: Why Transforming Fear of Death is Politically Vital”

Aubade, by Philip Larkin (Devs, 2020)

A mesmerizing scene from the penultimate episode of Devs, written and directed by Alex Garland. Set in the near-future, the series posits the creation of a quantum computer that can be used to experience any moment of the past or future, and which may bring about the end of reality according to natural law. The … Read moreAubade, by Philip Larkin (Devs, 2020)

“What Justifies a Life? In Memory of Liam McCarty”

Jared Morningstar writes for Medium in memoriam of his friend Liam, and on the intrinsic value of life in relation to death: To be is also to experience, and the conscious experience of human life is something of both irreducible individuality and incomparable richness. In merely experiencing life as ourselves — in all its complexity … Read more“What Justifies a Life? In Memory of Liam McCarty”

“This Halloween, Let’s Really Think About Death”

Elizabeth Bruenig writes for The Atlantic: Halloween is no approximation of the firsthand experience of death. But it does foreground the visceral fear of death (occasionally via viscera itself). And it offers an opportunity to engage playfully with the idea of dying, through community celebration rather than solemn contemplation—or jarring confrontations with violence in headlines … Read more“This Halloween, Let’s Really Think About Death”