Life you may evade,

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Life you may evade,
but Death you shall not.
--T.S. Eliot
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(explore these links)
Headline News
iPod Used in Domestic Homicide
Number-one Hit
Tears in Heaven, by Eric Clapton
Making the e-mail rounds
Bumping the Wall
on with the show -gt
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iPod Used in Domestic Homicide
MEMPHIS, TENNESSEE (HLN) - A Memphis woman was
arrested and charged with first-degree murder
after she bludgeoned her boyfriend to death with
an iPod.
Arleen Mathers, 23, was arrested Thursday morning
after she called Memphis Police and said she had
killed her boyfriend, according to a Sheriffs
Department report. When deputies arrived at
Mathers apartment at 528 Poplar Avenue, Mathers
led them to the body of her boyfriend, Brad
Pulaski, 27. Brad Pulaski had died of blunt
trauma to the head after being repeatedly
bludgeoned with an iPod, a popular MP3 player
produced by Apple. Police said no motive has
been confirmed, although evidence suggested the
murder was the result of a domestic dispute after
Pulaski erased the contents of Mathers
iPod.According to law officers, Mathers was
hysterical when police arrived and told them that
she killed her boyfriend only after he accused
her of illegally downloading music and erased
about 2,000 of her MP3s. Mathers complained that
it took 3 months to build her music
collection.An autopsy performed Friday
afternoon at Methodist Hospital showed that Brad
Pulaski had been beat multiple times in the face
and chest by a blunt metal object, and died of
internal bleeding, said Dr. Felix Klamut, deputy
coroner. According to Apples website, the iPod
is partially made of a hard metal plate thats
been praised for its resistance to regular wear
and tear, like drops and coffee spills. It
took him a while to die, Dr. Klamut said. She
must have stabbed him 40 to 80 times with that
iPod. His death was not instantaneous, thats
for sure. Arleen Mathers was arraigned Friday
night by a video hookup from the county jail.
Municipal Court Judge Simon Lambert set her bond
at 600,000 and scheduled a preliminary hearing
for March 9.
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Tears in Heaven
by Eric Clapton
Written after the accidental death of his young
son, this intimate sharing of Claptons
experience of his grief became an award-winning
hit for the well-known blues rocker.
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Bumping the Wall
A funeral service was being held in a small town
funeral parlor for a woman who had just passed
away. At the end of the service, the pallbearers
were carrying the casket out, when they
accidentally bumped into a wall and shook the
casket. Hearing a faint moan, they opened the
casket and found out that the woman was actually
alive! For ten more years, the woman enjoyed
good health, and then suddenly died. A ceremony
is again held at the same funeral parlor. At the
end of the ceremony, the pallbearers are again
carrying out the casket. As they make their way
toward the door, the husband cries out, Watch
out for the wall!
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Our syllabus boldly states for our discussion
topics this week
You too will die.
On the one hand, this seems frivolously obvious.
On the other, not so much.
Our cultureas we will seeis so death-denying
that it is necessary to simply get it out there.
Sit with it, for a moment.
Well be doing a great deal more than that--
soon enough.
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Book-ends and To-do Lists. . .
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It is strange, when you think of all the
anxiety and energy our culture expends, in its
desperate effort to deny, put off, negate, or
otherwise unthink death--
Because death is, after all, just another
perfectly natural transition--
Like birth.
In fact, exactly like birth, except on the
opposite end.
The other bookend, on the other side of life.
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We dont fear birth, do we?
But if you think about it, wouldnt it be
completely understandable, if you did?
Here you are, in a perfectly warm, safe,
lovely place. All your needs are met, everything
is brought right to you. You are surrounded
by soothing sounds, gently rocked, deeply
nurtured. You have everything you need, and
everything is right, and safe, and wholly good.
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Suddenly, there is a terrible squeezing
pressure. It happens again and again and
AGAIN! It pushes and pushes you, until you are
squeezed and smushed out of a small, crushing
tunnel--
--and into a terrible, bright place--
--it is COLD and there are blinding lights and
sharp edges and LOUD, frightening noises and
NOTHING is familiar and NOTHING is given to you
without WORKING for it and EVERYTHING is
difficult,

because you dont know what ANYTHING is, even
things that are
YOU.
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No wonder you cried!
But we dont say to babies Im so sorry you
had to be born today.
We dont say to mothers Oh, how awful that
your baby was delivered.
And you say Okay, Dr. B, you are being
ridiculous now.
But. . .
And you are right.
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The fact remains that birth and death are
equally natural endpoints of the same timeline.
Neither is evil or wrong or unnatural, in
and of itself.
Although BOTH can be badly timed, or result from
accidents, and have sad outcomes for people who
care about the person being born, or the person
dying.
Both can also be a reason to take time to gain
perspective, and to celebrate life
in all its beauty, and potential.
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Another way I like to look at it is this
Death is the last thing on everybodys To-Do
List.
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It is a thing that unites us,
inextricably and inescapably.
It is a thing that we all, all--
No matter our color, our creed, our politics--
No matter our preferences, our values,

our choices--
No matter our opinions,
no matter our experiences--
We all, all share this we are all alike in this
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That last To-Do entry on Lifes List?
Its a doozie!
And it is the very same one, for us
all.
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But, just as a story is no good without a
beginning
a middle
and an END. . .
(Come now, would you really be interested
in reading a book or watching a movie if
somebody told you it NEVER ENDED???)
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It is the end of the thing
that allows us to find the meaning of it.
Because it is only knowing that there IS an end
that prompts us to look for the meaning, at all.
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Stillion Digression, 514 (it wouldnt be a
Stillion lecture without one)
In High School, we had to read Dickens A Tale of
Two Cities. Wow, it was long. Wow, it was
slow. Wow, it was boring. Wow, did I slog
through itslog, slog, slog. Good LORD! Will
this book never end?! But I had to, so I read
it. Plus I really loved the teacher, so I read
it.
Got to the last chapter, read the last page.
Mouth dropped open!!! This is the GREATEST
book I have EVER read!!! And it was.
See, it was the END that made the ENTIRE
experience worthwhile.
And I wouldnt trade it for the world.
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Ill dare to hope for a similar experience
for you
in this class.
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The adventure begins. . .