Sweet Auburn: The Magazine of the Friends of Mount Auburn Mount Auburn and The Civil War | Page 16

Crucial Conversations:
New Talk about an Eternal Subject
By Bree Harvey, Vice President of Cemetery & Visitor Services
In late Septembe r, nearly 10 0 people assemble d
in Story Chapel to meet author, blogger, and mortician
Caitlin Doughty. It was a remarkably diverse gathering:
there were twenty-somethings and retirees; some in fleece
and khakis and others in studded leather jackets;
professional funeral directors and advocates for
the green burial movement. People came from
all over New England to hear Doughty speak
about her professional experiences in the funeral
industry and how these experiences shaped her
view of death.
Doughty has been fostering a growing public
conversation about death through her website
Order of the Good Death (www.orderofthe-
gooddeath.com) and now through her bestselling memoir,
Smoke Gets In Your Eyes and Other Lessons from the Crematory.
She writes: “a culture that denies death is a barrier to
achieving a good death. Overcoming our fears about death
will be no small task, but we shouldn’t forget how quickly
other cultural prejudices—racism, sexism, homophobia—
have begun to topple in the recent past. It is high time
death had its moment of truth.”
“Do any human beings ever
realize life while they live it?
– every, every minute?”
— E mily , O ur T own , A ct III
14 | Sweet Auburn
This sentiment has been driving a new focus in the public
programming at Mount Auburn. In March, Mount Auburn
held its first Death Café, an informal opportunity for people
to engage in a facilitated discussion about death over tea
and cake. The success of the first Death Café led us to
sponsor two more, each filled to capacity. In October, we
hosted the third annual production of “A Glimpse Beyond,”
which approaches the subject of what lies beyond death
through music, dance, and poetry. Finally, in November,
Story Chapel and our beautiful grounds were the setting
for a production of “Our Town,” Thornton Wilder’s classic
play that reminds us not to wait until death to appreciate
the beauty in each day (see below).
Since its founding, Mount Auburn has helped to shape
the way Americans think about death, encouraging the
view that it is a natural part of the life cycle that a person
may contemplate without fear. In the second half of the
19th century, however, our view of death
changed dramatically, in part because of the
Civil War. Its grim legacy lives on in us: “We
still struggle to understand how to preserve our
humanity and our selves within such a world,”
writes historian and Harvard President Drew
Gilpin Faust in This Republic of Suffering: Death
and the American Civil War. “We still seek to use
our deaths to create meaning where we are not
sure any exists.”
New forces are now at work, once again reshaping
the American view of death. We hope that you will join
Mount Auburn in carrying this vital conversation forward.
Boston-based chorus Voices Rising performs during 3rd annual A
Glimpse Beyond in October 2014” (top) and “Caitlin Doughty poses
with Mount Auburn’s Crematory Manager Walter Morrison after her
talk at the Cemetery on September 25, 2014” (above, center)
This fall, the Friends of Mount
Auburn, in collaboration with the
Underground Railway Theater, a
company-in-residence at Central
Square Theater in Cambridge,
presented a unique staged reading of
Thornton Wilder’s masterpiece, “Our
Town.” Director Megan Sandberg-
Zakian staged the reading specifically
for Mount Auburn, with Acts I and II
taking place inside Story Chapel and
Act III outside in Hazel Dell. In
addition to two ticketed performances
held for the general public, the Friends
offered three free weekday matinees for
students from Medford, Melrose, and
Providence, RI. The participating
students, who had read the play in
advance, toured the Cemetery to make
further connections between the play
and the place. One eighth-grade
student wrote of the experience:
“Mount Auburn is a place for people
not only to come and pay their
respects to their loved ones but to
reflect on life and the true meaning.
The play Our Town is about life
and death and what life is really
about. Life after death is shown in
this place… Mount Auburn is a
great place to feel comfortable even
with the idea of death. ”
Our Town was made possible with
generous support from the Anthony J. and
Mildred D. Ruggiero Memorial Trust.