There's ethics, at a general level, and then there's the ethical work of the world, at a particular level: the way individuals and communities do subtotals of life and of their lives -- prior to the final accounting. Eulogies are important here, because they document the way that the dead live on, and also the way that human beings make sense of losing something irreplaceable. Eulogies are reminders of the themes in someone's life. They also complete the picture, showing what different impulses and projects were held in tension in this life. The make it possible to take a life seriously by placing the absurdities of the life in some context, excusing what can be excused.
Taken together, eulogies form a moral literature that documents what the community strives to hold on to, over time.
Posted by shea0017 at July 27, 2004 8:45 AM