The Myth of "Closure"

There was a couple of good articles on the front page of the opinion section of yesterday's Boston Globe.

One, with the same title as this post, was about a book which questions the whole notion of "closure" as it exists, very imprecisely, in popular thought. I won't try to summarize it, but I think it's worth thinking about.

The other one is about the influence, even power, which "non-state actors" of various types have in the post Cold War world. Al Qaeda is just the most obvious example, but there are other types as well, such as Wikileaks, transnational corporations, and social networking sites. They can have impacts on countries that governments must be concerned about, but governments are finding the tools they can use with other governments (such as war, threats of war, foreign aid, etc.) are useless when the other party is not another country. The article points out the problem, but doesn't seem to point to any real solution(s).

Words of Consolation

However painful it is to bid farewell to one who has died,

once you have done so, you can begin a new relationship with them,

one you can always cherish.

Once you release them from earthly time,

you can embrace them in eternity.

When you release them from the physical dimension,

you can hold them close in a dimension no less real: the spiritual one.

For even though they no longer walk beside you,

they will be even closer.

They will be within you.

And you will not forget them, because you cannot forget them.

They will be as near to you as your own breathing,

and as much a part of you as your own dreaming.

They will exist in you as love.

At a funeral I attended last week, the person who gave the "words of remembrance" at the end of Mass read this. I was so struck by it that I asked him where he got it. It comes from a book titled Winter Grief, Summer Grace: Returning to Life after a Loved One Dies by James E. Miller, page 55. Perhaps it will speak meaningfully to you now. If not, perhaps you will remember this post and return to it when you can use it.