Confessions of a Funeral Director by Caleb Wilde

I'm Caleb Wilde a sixth generation funeral director and here are a few of my confessions I grew up in a funeral as a child I played hide and go seek around the caskets I celebrated holidays in the same rooms where other people read their lost loved ones and I once peeked into the morgue while my pop-pop was embalming the corpse basically I've been up close and personal with death throughout my entire life this unique experience coupled with my religious heritage which viewed death as a punishment for sin and Hell as a terrifying reality created in me a death negative a narrative I could see no redeeming value in it so like most people I plan to get as far away from death and the family business as possible it was an understandable reaction as a species were biologically wired to evade death for as long as we can however we've become too adept at hiding it vilifying it and when it can be avoided no longer letting the professionals take over that'll change for me when I finally joined the family business in my mid-twenties I tremble to say there's good and death because I've looked in the eyes of the grieving mother and I've seen the heartbreak of the stricken widow but I've also seen something more death the sacred spaces it creates I've seen how death harbors a sense of Eden where we can touch a vulnerability and transparency like nothing else I've seen how death creates authentic moments of self-reflection like nothing else can and how heaven and death are somehow woven together how the best of our humanity our most intimate moments with God and with each other are somehow found and the spirituality we fear death because we don't know it we don't see it and we don't touch it and what we don't know we've painted in broad strokes of darkness and negativity the best negative narrative wouldn't be so strong if we only had the ability to see touch and hold our dying in our debt this is the message of my book I want you to see a little of what I've seen so that an embracing death you can more strongly embrace life [Music]

Channel: HarperOne (an imprint of HarperCollins)

Views: 411,141

Rating: 4.6430922 out of 5

Keywords: confessions of a funeral director, caleb wilde, caleb wild, death, dying, funeral, funerals, funeral industry, funeral business, funeral director, life and death, memoir, memoirs, death-positive, death-positive movement, death positivity, spirituality of death, embalming, morgue, mortality

Id: o9xbN3-OR4Q

Length: 2min 28sec (148 seconds)

Published: Thu Aug 17 2017