Mikrokopter Hexa-XL Flies Over Mount Auburn
Mount Auburn Recycles! During an electronic recycling event for staff and local community members we collected: 250- 300 cubic feet of material, including 29 PC Towers 3 iMacs
People and Happenings
Let Them Eat Cake( and Talk About Death, Too)
Mikrokopter Hexa-XL Flies Over Mount Auburn
In October 2013, software developer Eben Gay flew the Mikrokopter Hexa-XL over the Sphinx. The hexacopter about 30 inches across with a camera attached, produced 3- dimensional images of our iconic sphinx monument.
Explore more online:
www. mountauburn. org / sweet-auburn-summer-2014 /
On the afternoon of Friday, October 18th the International Dendrology Society visited Mount Auburn for lunch and a tour of the grounds with Dave Barnett, who was leading the group on a ten-day tour of fall foliage throughout New England.
Mount Auburn Recycles! During an electronic recycling event for staff and local community members we collected: 250- 300 cubic feet of material, including 29 PC Towers 3 iMacs
11 Laptops 10 VCR, DVD or CD Players 17 Flat screen monitors or TVs 2 iPods and a box of Christmas lights. Stay tuned for next event!
People and Happenings
Let Them Eat Cake( and Talk About Death, Too)
By Stephanie Gillette, External Affairs Coordinator
On a gray Sunday in March, Bigelow Chapel opened to reveal a room of tablecloth-draped tables, flickering candles, thermoses of tea, and a cheery frosted cake announcing Mount Auburn’ s 1st Death Café. Attendees poured in, curious and eager to dive into conversation. Nearly two hours later, everyone emerged a bit lighter from their conversations, and a crumb fuller from the sweet confection.
The Death Café model, developed by Jon Underwood in England( and inspired by Bernard Crettaz), is an opportunity for people to come together to drink tea, eat cake, and discuss death. It is not a bereavement group or end-of-life event; it is a chance to muse openly with others about what death means in regards to life.
With those simple rules in place, Mount Auburn invited the community in for this important conversation. Thirtyfive strangers and five facilitators circled the tables around the room and quickly leapt into animated discussions of loss, philosophical examinations of death, and the pursuit to understand the meaning of a good death. No topic was taboo or too sensitive to explore.
In teasing out our own relationships with death – anxieties, sorrows, hopes, and regrets – a common ground was found. Attendees exchanged phone numbers to continue their conversations and engage in“ death circles”; the sound of laughter frequently punctuated the event and emphasized a comfort with the topic. When asked about her experience at the Death Café, Mount Auburn Cemetery Volunteer Roberta Messina explained,“ I sat with people I had never met. In our own way we each expressed how precious life is and the importance of living life to the fullest, sharing thoughts about loved ones who had died, and about the future. By the end of my first Death Café I had been inspired by others in ways I had not expected, grateful for each person and the whole experience.”
“ Comforting,”“ inspiring,” and“ interesting” were the three words used most frequently to describe Mount Auburn’ s Death Café, among those in attendance. We hope you’ ll join us at a future Death Café to share your perspective on this intriguing, universal topic.
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