Columnist Esther Cepeda (SunTimes, Nov 2) is on to something that's been foolishly eluding most Americans for generations: Death!
She speaks openly -- and reverently -- of the November 2 Hispanic Dia de los Muerto honoring departed loved ones. Oh, but not with black bunting and neurotic denial. Instead of keeping death at a nice antiseptic distance, this celebration embraces it with heavy food and hearty drink. Why pretend death isn't here? And isn't for all of us?
So America's polite, arm's-length convention about the dead is not altogether universal. Attend most Irish wakes and you'll find plenty of food and drink too; plus a roguish dash of dark humor. Also our Mediterranean cultures take death pretty seriously; and pretty loudly. And yet, the mainstream WASP tradition in America has mostly been keeping a dispassionate distance between the living and the dead. Keeping it clean, keeping it quiet, and most of all keeping it quick.
Maybe one of the reasons we're so glutted with so many tales of vampires and witches is they permit a little release for our uptight reserve and dread. However, as Cepeda wisely suspects, some of this may be changing. And why not! When you're planning a long trip, you usually want to get to know something about it ahead of time, don't you?
Well........?
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I'm all for facing things rather than running from them. I mean, with this one where's there to run????
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