The Subject We Avoid

Here in America, we don’t talk about death. Death is something that “happens,” usually to other people, and nearly always in other places. Even when it strikes a relative, it’s usually in a hospital and all the details are managed by the “professionals.”

This is a recent development, of course. Like nearly everything else about our lives, the rituals and knowledge of death went through a change sometime around the turn to the 20th century. There’s not an exact date – just a gradual shifting aw...