We're all dying. Sooner or later we're going to croak, kick the bucket, give up the ghost, cash in our chips, shuffle off, bow out or go to our happy hunting ground. It's the one thing we all have in common. Yet no one seems to want to talk about it. Well, the people at Pilotlight do.
Unlike our ancestors, for whom dying was an important part of living, many of us will face death without any innate spiritual insight. When someone dies, no one seems to know what to say. Dying to Know aims to change all that. Based on the bestselling Change the World for Ten Bucks, Dying to Know is a collection of conversation starters and idea buds partnered with practical information, quirky facts and specialist advice that lifts the lid on death: planning a personalised funeral; designing and decorating your own coffin; organ donation; coping with the pain of loss; creating online memorials; strange mortuary practices; avoiding teenage suicide; making setting up a Will fun; helping children cope with death; things to do before you die; and a host of other topics. Each is presented in a double-page spread and aims to empower, inspire and, at times, amuse the reader.
The book is also designed as a resource that links the reader to a vast range of services and organisations – everything from mortician's courses to statutory information about Wills.
How do you ask Granddad if he wants the Collingwood theme song played at his funeral? Should you tell loved ones you're donating your organs? Why did ancient Greeks bury their dead with a coin in their mouth? Can you be buried in a cardboard box?
Dying to Know is not a book with all the answers. Just ideas, insights, advice and inspiring illustrations about a subject none of us can escape. Read it and then rush into the daylight to get on with the more challenging matter of living.
