Life, Death and Mourning

This week, maybe because it's autumn, death seems to be coming up with more than the usual frequency. Cbc's 'The Sunday Edition' dedicated the whole three hour program to discussing dying, death traditions and mediums. This week's episode of 'This American Life' is called Rest In Peace. I finally learned what happened in Jonestown. I've watched two films this week dealing with death, revenge and grief, especially the grief of parents for their dead children.
One of the films, The Host was almost entirely driven by the main characters' family's blind grief and anger at the abduction of their beloved schoolgirl-child. From the tenderness of a father lifting his daughter's backpack to ease her burden, to the rawness of a father wrenching his daughter's lifeless body from the belly of a beast, the film was most interesting to me because of its depiction of the intensity of the familial bond.
This morning I learned about mourning rings. Sir George Simpson wore a mourning ring for a child of his that died several months after it was born. The ring was a diamond, and it was covered with black enamel so that it wouldn't sparkle. Here is an example of a mourning ring belonging to Jeremy Bentham. Not quite as dramatic.