From the website of Huggable Urns, a company that sells cremation urns in the form of stuffed animals and pillows. In 2005, the company introduced a new line of teddy bear-shaped urns wearing t-shirts with the logos of the U. S. Armed Forces.
Alexandra, the founder of Huggable Urns, is passionate about maintaining the loving connections between the living and loved ones who have moved on. “Our society doesn’t deal well with the dying process,” she says, “and this can make it very hard for people who are grieving and are forcibly separated from the remains of their loved one. When my own father died, his ashes were put into a plastic urn, which was stored in my mother’s closet. All I wanted to do was hold him again, but the urn was hard and impersonal.”
Alexandra’s search for a way to be able to hug and feel close to her father led her to develop these unique urns, extremely soft and comforting to the touch, perfect for holding, and discreet and stylish enough to keep visible in the home without causing discomfort or embarrassment to visitors. “I just love to sit and hold my father,” she says. “Even though I know that he has moved on, it gives me great comfort to know he is physically close and a part of my life, instead of being hidden away in a closet or scattered somewhere. ”Huggable Urns has become Alexandra’s life passion. She hopes that Huggable Urns will help break down the mystery and fear surrounding the natural process of death and grieving. Anything that can give a little comfort when you need it most has to be a good thing!
Instant Karma
From a February 26 sentencing memorandum by Judge Gregory R. Todd, in the case of Montana v. Andrew McCormack. In 2006, McCormack was arrested for stealing beer. After entering a guilty plea, he received a sentence of probation, community service, and a fine.
Mr McCormack, to the question of “Give your recommendation as to what you think the Court should do in this case,” you said, “Like the Beatles say, ‘Let it be.’’’ If I were to overlook your actions and let it be, I would have to ignore that day in the life on April 21, 2006. Evidently, you said to yourself, “I feel fine,” while drinking beer. Later, whether you wanted money or were just trying to act naturally, you became the fool on the hill. As Mr. Moonlight at 1:30am, you did not think for yourself, but just focused on I, me, mine. Because you didn’t ask for help, wait for something else, or listen to your conscience saying, “Honey, don’t,” the victim later that day was fixing a hole in the glass door you broke.
After you stole the 18-pack of Old Milwaukee, you decided it was time to run for your life and carry that weight. But when the witness said, “Baby, it’s you,” the police responded, “I’ll get you,” and you had to admit, “You really got a hold on me.” You were not able to get back home because of the chains they put on you.
Although you hoped the police would say, “I don’t want to spoil the party” and “We can work it out,” you were in misery when they said you were a bad boy. When the police took you to jail, they said, “Hello, goodbye,” and you became a nowhere man. Later, when you thought about what you did, you may have said, “I’ll cry instead.” Now you’re saying, “Let it be,” instead of, “I’m a loser.” As a result of your hard day’s night, you are looking at a ticket to ride that long and winding road. Hopefully, you can say when I’m 64, “I should have known better.”
Rumsfeld the Poet
The following poems were composed by Hart Seely from statements by Donald Rumsfeld. The poems appear in Pieces of Intelligence, published this month by the Free Press.
THE UNKNOWN
As we know,
There are known knowns.
There are things we know we know.
We also know
There are known unknowns.
That is to say
We know there are some things
We do not know.
But there are also unknown unknowns,
The ones we don’t know, we don’t know.
-February 12, 2002, Department of Defense news briefing
GLASS BOX
You know, it’s the old glass box at the – At the gas station,
Where you’re using those little things
Trying to pick up the prize,
And you can’t find it.
And it’s all these arms are going down in there,
And so you keep dropping it
And picking it up again and moving it,
But some of you are probably too young to remember those glass boxes,
But they used to have them
At all the gas stations, when I was a kid.
-December 6, 200 1, Department of Defense news briefing
THE SITUATION
Things will not be necessarily continuous.
The fact that they are something other than perfectly continuous
Ought not to be characterized as a pause.
There will be some things that people will see.
There will be some things that people won’t see.
And life goes on.
-October 12, 2001 , Department of Defense news briefing
Time after Time
From a letter to Italian President Giorgio Napolitano this May, signed by 310 prisoners serving life sentences for murder, the only crime that carries a life sentence in Italy, which banned the death penalty for all crimes in 1994.
Dear Mr. President of the Republic, We are tired of dying a little bit each day. We have decided to die once and for all, and we ask that our penalties of life imprisonment be converted to penalties of death. To be not dead but not alive either-life imprisonment turns light into shadow, it kills you inside bit by bit: a death in small doses. It renders life useless, makes the future seem the same as the past. It crushes the present and takes away hope. To a life prisoner, only life remains. But life without a future is less than nothing. It is flat and everlasting. Life imprisonment is the invention of an Antichrist with a malice that transcends the imagination. It is a victory over death, stronger than death itself.