And we can estimate statistically how it’s going to happen!
It’s odd, but all the human experiences that are genuinely universal are also things that we have difficulty discussing. Birth is something you do when you’re an illiterate ignoramus of a baby, and you can’t talk; and death is something nobody can discuss after they’ve experienced it, so we’ve got this little industry of people who make up stories about an afterlife. We need more people who are willing to talk honestly about the facts of death — so here’s an interview with Sarah Troop, one of those people willing to do just that.
Sarah Troop is a museum curator and historian who writes and recreates historical and cultural recipes for her blog, Nourishing Death, which examines the relationship between food and death in rituals, culture, religion, and society. She is also co-founder of Death & the Maiden, which explores the relationship between women and death by sharing ideas and creating a platform for discussion and feminist narratives. She is the executive director of The Order of the Good Death and serves as the Social Media Editor for Death Salon. Sarah is also an author and advocate for improved care and support of families experiencing infant and child death and was a contributing author to the companion book for the Emmy nominated film, Return to Zero.
It’s exactly the kind of thing you need to read first thing in the morning. It woke me up, anyway!
That’s a stupid graph.
Okey-dokey, will the fact murder is a less likely cause of death than suicide motivate ammosexuals to rethink America’s gun culture?
Oh, who am I kidding, they’re about as grounded in reality as Holocaust deniers.
Nourishing Death is fascinating, thanks for the link. I’ll check all the others when I’m home from the pain clinic.
Is Miz Troop a goth girl? She has the cred for it, as co-founder of DEATH & the Maiden, executive director of The Order of the Good DEATH, and Social Media Editor for DEATH Salon. I’m envisioning her as Wednesday Adams, all grown up.
Soooo, I’m thinking Sarah Troop’s interior design choices will.. erm. include a lot of Black, checker-patterned tiles, Large Clocks and vast empty voids full of the soft murmuring sound of sand pouring in inumerable hourglasses. (Seriously how can one get so much awesome into one’s bio?)
“mental health disorders” are a distinct, direct cause of death?
If I understand correctly, the graph is specifically for the modern UK. The risk of dying by pregnancy, homicide, and suicide are all, IIRC, higher in the US.
Another death positive resource is “Ask A Mortician” on Youtube. She is also involved with The Order of The Good Death.
Note that the circle for “Terrorism” is smaller than your screen’s minimum pixel size.
Yet, if one were to rank the causes of death based upon how much the government spends on them, which circle would be the largest?
Preventing, or causing?
Pierce, they are.(?) They also increase morbidity from nearly all other causes as well.
I find it odd that “suicide” is listed separately from mental-illness-related deaths. Does that mean it refers to suicide by people who didn’t have a mental health problem of some sort? The circle seems too big if that’s the case.
#11 wins
and it would be “war”, kind of in both cases
applehead #3
Why would it? By the same logic they might as well use it support their idea that “guns don’t kill people” since murder is “obvious” such a minor concern and suicide can be considered a personal matter.
Or to put it another way, looking at the graph, what is more terrifying to you personally, that another fast-food joint opens next to you or that a war breaks out in your town?
It’s just a stupid and fairly useless graph.
Raucous Indignation @ # 12: … they are.(?)
How so?
Especially if “suicide”, “murder” and accidents go into other categories?
That’s what others have died from. What am I going to die of? The graph doesn’t include asteroid impacts, supervolcano eruptions, getting vaccinated, nor ingesting GMOs. Having different groups order their likelihood of dying from various causes would be interesting. I wonder how Jenny McCathartical would order the latter two.
It’s such a shame that one can’t get reliable feedback from the dead, it would be so illuminating. Aside from the religious experiences of near-death – speaking of which, I was recently looking on google videos for something concerning eyesight in horses and got some incredible links to jesus riding on horseback… Check this one out, just amazing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pf4dYO9cAFI
I’m not going to die. I going to live forever. So far, so good.
(C) Steve Wright