Funeral Words

Shifting Religious Affiliations

According to a survey on religions affiliation newly published by the Pew Forum on Religious and Public life, more than 25% of Americans have left the faith of their childhood to either switch religions or to become unaffiliated altogether. If you factor in movement between protestant denominations, then some 44% of Americans have changed affiliation.

For a full summary follow the link to the New York Times site.

New York Times: Americans Change Faiths at Rising Rate, Report Finds

Illinois Association Funeral Trust in Trouble

According to the Journal Register newspaper, the Illinois Funeral Directors Association trust fund has some serious problems. Follow the link for the full story.

Springfield Journal Register: Funeral fund runs a deficit

Coffins with Style

I regularly visit a website dedicated to unique product and advertising design. I saw the following advertisement this morning. [Click the image to see more detail.]

I've seen a variety of custom coffin makers over the years, but this outfit seems to have an eye for salesmanship and design as well.

You can find their website at the following: Bert and Bud's Vintage Coffins

According to the website, they have a workshop in Murray, KY. Note also that each unit gets made to custom order. They do not stock anything ahead.

The Voices of Caregivers

For those of you concerned to know and better understand the lives of caregivers who come to see you at funeral arrangement time, let me suggest a new title released this year called An Uncertain Inheritance: Writers on Caring for Family. According to the New York Times Book Review, this collection of essays covers a wide range of caregiving circumstances and experiences from dealing with autism and depression to alzheimers, cancer and other terminal illnesses.

Caregiving has changed as a role within family and community. The reviewer, Joyce Johnson, puts it this way:

In the past, when families were much larger and life was more often cut short by disease, caregiving was more integrated into normal life. Women were brought up to become the selfless angels of the household, the built-in care system in any emergency. In Victorian novels, the sick and dying are usually surrounded by a great many people — from family members to servants — and there is something ennobling about the process. Great last-minute epiphanies occur, as well as uplifting reconciliations. The personal sacrifice involved in caregiving becomes its own reward.

Today’s caregivers are likely to find themselves peculiarly alone, exiles from the busy, heedless life around them in what the writers in this book variously call “a black hole of time and energy,” a “Black Balloon,” “our own little prison,” “Planet Autism” and “this unfamiliar country with different weathers, different rules.”

This book delves into those gray areas of modern caregiving experience. I have my copy on order and will give you and update when time allows.

                               

Here's a link to the Times review:

New York Times Book Review: An Uncertain Inheritance

Midlife Suicide on the Rise

According to an article in today's New York Times, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have issued an analysis of population statistics which points to a 20% rise in suicide among those age 45-54 and among women in that age group a rise of 31%.

So far they have not pinpointed a key contributing factor but the CDC has called for further research.

For more information follow the link:

New York Times: Midlife Suicide Rises, Puzzling Researchers

How about you as a funeral director? What experiences have you had with suicide lately? Leave a comment.

"I Will Follow You Into The Dark"

I came across this music video over the weekend. The lyrics deal with the theme of loss and death, so it might come in handy at a funeral or memorial service.

UPDATE: Let me provide a little more information about the song. The recording comes from an album by the Seattle band Death Cab for Cutie called Plans. I also see on iTunes that you can download a higher resolution version of this same video for $1.99.

The song was written and apparently performed by band member Ben Gibbard. (Note: I am no expert about indie rock bands. If someone else has further information about this track, do not hesitate to pass it along via the comments section.)

You can find a copy of the lyrics by clicking here.

If you would like to know more about the video itself, the link below will take you to a director's commentary.

I Will Follow You Into The Dark: Director's Commentary

The One Minute Manager

Though some funeral homes choose to shrink in the face of cremation's lost revenues. Most of us find we must manage larger and larger groups of people as businesses consolidate in regions like the northeast, or grow huge in size as we see in other parts of the country.

I know I have my hands full developing and refining a workable approach to the staff I have on hand and I realize more and more the need to keep the management process as simple and flexible as possible.

In desperation, I picked up a classic book The One-Minute Manager by Ken Blanchard and have begun to put he prescriptions into use. The good news? You can understand this book in a minute. Nothing to memorize, no earthshatteringly weird concepts, but for anyone steeped in the old command and control mindset (and who isn't in funeral service with all these old-guy funeral home owners who perhaps learned a little management in the military 40 years ago, or more likely have no management training whatsoever), you could spend a lifetime learning to adopt and apply these simple and effective concepts.

At the beginning of the book, a statement which sets the tone:

* People Who Feel Good About Themselves -- Produce Good Results *

Such a deceptively simple idea, but like many "simple" concepts, a lifelong challenge if taken to heart.

I have begun my journey of un-learning and re-learning my approach to managing people. As I experience the ups and downs, I will share a bit more as time goes along.

In the mean time, you might want to grab a copy and start your own re-learning process. Even non-managers will find this a valuable philosophy in other parts of life.

                                                

It's not about the "BIG" idea...

The concept of the "Blue Ocean Strategy" has surfaced on the cover of NFDA's Director magazine. The process involves a complex and probably error prone (unless you are a strategic planning specialist of some kind) approach to measuring your business' place in your market place and possibly finding a new business offering.

Underlying this approach rests the assumption that one big idea will make your business successful, as the article points to Starbucks Coffee and Southwest Airlines as examples of companies which found "blue oceans" within which to operate. Of course, at the time of the founding of these companies, the people involved had no idea that their WAG (wild-assed guesses) would turn into national phenomena. Just passionate people with an idea that happened to work out, but not one reached through some sort of fancy chart and graph planning process.

For instance, if I remember correctly, Southwest started as a triangle drawn on a cocktail napkin with the corners representing three cities in Texas. After they got going, Southwest realized they had a concept with "legs" and the capacity to move beyond the boundaries of one state. Lots of trial and error and willingness turned Southwest into the powerhouse we see today.

So it takes passion, hard work, luck (lots of passionate people have started airlines and failed)  and constant learning and trying new things. In the end, the trying and the learning at the grass roots of an organizaton will get you to bigger business opportunities much faster than a formal strategic planning process which drops in from out of the blue.

Try, listen, learn, do some more. That's the essence of building any business  or project.

BT

P.S. Here's a commentary which ran in the New York Times a week ago. A reminder that innovation rarely comes from the "Eureka!" moment, most often from persistent grind-it-out hard work and learning. Eureka! It Really Takes Years of Hard Work

RIP Polaroid Film

Funeral homes and funeral directors have long relied upon Polaroid photographs for identification purposes and to document many other things related to funerals.

Just so you know, the investor group responsible for the Polaroid name has decided to shutter the Polaroid film business entirely closing three factories and leaving 450 people without jobs. So for the few of you who have not switched to digital photography (of course if you haven't switched to digital photography it seems highly unlikely you would find you way onto this blog, but hey, maybe some of you can spread the word to the uninitiated) the time has come to put the Polaroid camera away permanently.

Polaroid Abandons Instant Photography

For the Parents and Grandparents in All of Us

I will call this posting a "Friday Extra," as it has little direct impact on funeral service but for all of you with young ones of some sort or other (children, grandchildren, nieces, newphews, etc.) who you worry about becoming the prey of online preditors, give the following New York Times editorial a look. It points out how many kids (probably most) develop a certain street-smarts about their online contacts which does help keep trouble at bay.

Of course parents and guardians need to remain supportive, vigilant and aware of the lives kids lead on line, but perhaps this article will help ease the paranoia just a bit.

Have a great weekend, BT

NYTimes.com: My Wired Youth