Life in the Garden

Matters of Life and Death

Television

Brush With Greatness-Truman Gibson

Truman Gibson Jr.

Last month I had the television on and in the background was a documentary on the boxer, Joe Louis. I snapped to attention at the mention of Louis’ attorney, Truman K. Gibson Jr. Honestly, I’m sad to say that I’d never heard of Gibson, until 2006, when his grand daughter called from D.C. to order his urn.

At the close of the conversation, she told me that me that this great man had a hand in making history and his name was Truman Gibson. She invited me to look him up.

I did.

And was blown away.

And honored.

Brief Highlights:

Black Cabinet: a Chicago attorney who had been the last surviving member of the World War II-era “black Cabinet” of Presidents Franklin D. Roosevelt and Harry S Truman.

Racial Covenants: Mr. Gibson was a member of the legal team that challenged a restrictive racial covenant prohibiting African Americans from living in the Washington Park area of the South Side. He spent months poring over property deeds to build the factual basis for the U.S. Supreme Court case that overturned the covenant. The plaintiff was black real-estate developer Carl Hansberry, whose daughter Lorraine would use the experience as inspiration for her 1959 Pulitzer Prize-winning play “A Raisin in the Sun.”

Army Racial Segregation: With the outbreak of war in Europe and the increasing likelihood that the United States would be drawn in, the Roosevelt administration sought to answer the growing outcry from black Americans over the segregated military and the second-class support status of African Americans in the military. Mr. Gibson played an influential role in finally convincing the Army that it had to commit African-American troops to battle. Most notably, the black 92nd Infantry Division was thrown against the heavily fortified German Gothic Line in northern Italy in early 1945 in a terrible bloodletting that remains a source of controversy.

Thank you Truman Gibson.

Dead Man Walking Pt. 2

indian postcard

Schools canceled, yoga’s canceled, it’s slick, it’s Friday, I’m lazy, let’s do a link dump.

First up, Candace’s post on anesthesia got me thinking on several points…how dangerous it really is. The nip and tuck I wish I could afford. And finally… an ugly confrontation I had right before Christmas with…..an anesthesiologist!

In other news, Virginia is trying to attract organ donors by waiving licensing fees at the DMV. Let’s make it really attractive and waive personal property taxes, and state income tax?

Dead People Pimping Products:

Copyranter analyzes this ad for yachts.

Last summer this ad agency was fired for the Doc Marten campaign ad that ran in the UK. In the agencies defense, someone in the Doc Marten chain APPROVED that ad.

Trim Spa still sports Anna Nicole’s image on the VIP page.

Manipulation

ww2 propaganda

Sunday’s 60 minute episode featuring the story of FBI agent George Piro and the interrogation of Saddam Hussein fascinated my simple mind.

First let’s talk about Agent Piro. Handsome, Lebanese, scary mind control and fluent in Arabic.

The subject of weapons of mass destruction was the most important mystery Piro was trying to answer. It would take him five months to bring up the question.

Piro says no coercive interrogation techniques, like sleep deprivation, heat, cold, loud noises, or water boarding were ever used. “It’s against FBI policy, first. And wouldn’t have really benefited us with someone like Saddam,” Piro says.

So how did the FBI get there?

Through the garden of course. You must be patient.

“We had the guards remove their watches. And the only person that was wearing a watch was me. And it was very evident to him, ’cause I was wearing the largest wristwatch you could imagine. And it was just the act of him asking for the time — was critical in our plan,” Piro says.

Controlling time itself.

In addition to cookies on Saddam’s birthday, Piro’s mother supplied another gift unwittingly: flower seeds. Saddam was given a small plot behind a high fence where he gardened with his bare hands because he couldn’t have tools. Piro and Saddam took walks in the tiny garden and what flowed was a series of revelations. Poetry opened the door for discussions on WMD.

What was Saddam’s opinion of Osama Bin Laden?

“He considered him to be a fanatic. And as such was very wary of him. He told me, ‘You can’t really trust fanatics,’” Piro says.

Clearing the Emotional Clutter Pt. 2

HOW TO FREE YOURSELF OF MEMORY CLUTTER

* Realize that if you let go of an item, you do not let go of that person. People do not live on through material items.

* Hold on to items that only bring back positive memories, not painful ones.

* If there are items that encourage you to keep up a ritual based on grief, consider letting it go and focus on the positive instead.

* Make sure your space has a great representation of the past but also leaves room for you to celebrate the present and plan for the future.

* Keep the items that truly represent your loved one. To help, use this three-step process:

Step 1: Place all items in another area.

Step 2: If you’re looking to renovate a room, decide how you want to feel in that space.

Step 3: Sort everything into three categories: charity donations, keepsakes and items for a memory chest.

After almost six years, one family began the process of letting go of their young son. They begin with suitcases of his clothes and find a T-shirt that brings back painful memories of the end of his life. “Three years of our life was pain, and that’s like a memory of him. That’s still him,” his mother says.

“You have to separate the pain from the memory of your son,” organizational expert Peter Walsh says. Slowly, she lets go. “The thing is now this will be used by kids who need clothes. It will be put to great use by others who are less well off than you,” Peter says.

When deciding to keep certain things, that were part of the family routine, Peter wants to make sure this ritual is not unhealthy for the family. “The big focus in this is that stuff has power over you,” Peter says. “My concern [is] that often in touching things or looking at things they [are] connecting to the grief of the experience.”

Five hours later, the family finishes with four boxes of joyful memories.

When they described what they wanted in a home office, the family told Nate they wanted it to be functional but still honor their son’s memory.

Nate turned Jake’s old bedroom into a cheerful, organized office for the entire family. The new space is inviting. Calming blue walls, one of which is covered in cork with family photographs and mementos from the past, but room for the future picture perfect moments.

Nate and Peter pulled out all the stops for a memory chest using a beautiful armoire from “Remember when we gathered everything that you wanted to keep into the memory chest pile?” Peter says. “It’s important to understand that those things that you wanted to keep can be stored anywhere as long as they’re stored with honor and respect. And in the case of the room, the armoire’s the perfect place for that.”

On the other side of the room is a matching armoire to organize office supplies. “There are two cabinets, one’s past, one’s present and future,” Nate says.

The family loves the tribute and says they are glad the room is no longer a shrine. “It’s more of a healthy room….it’s not stuck in 2001. Now it’s 2007 and forward.”

Coffin Break

The hearse that carried the body of President John F. Kennedy failed to sell at a classic car auction in Seabrook yesterday.

Apparently the highest bid of around $900,000 wasn’t enough for the owner of the historic vehicle.

After his mother-in-law’s funeral, Nathaniel Craigmiles saw the exact casket that had cost him $3,200 in Tennessee selling for only $800 in a New York City store. Hmmm.

Craigmiles, pastor of Marble Top Missionary Baptist Church in Chattanooga, Tennessee, saw a good business opportunity. He opened his own casket store and set his prices 30 to 50 percent below what other Tennessee casket dealers were charging.

After the business was open one week, however, the Tennessee Board of Funeral Directors ordered Craigmiles to stop selling caskets.

That’s because Tennessee law states that anyone who sells a casket must also be a licensed funeral director. To accomplish this, one must go through two years of training (which costs thousands of dollars), embalm 25 bodies and pass a license exam.

To sell a box. Outrageous! Full story here. This same scenario has been played out in several other states, among them, Oklahoma, Maine, Georgia, Mississippi and unsuccessfully in Missouri.

We’re crazy for the Soprano’s and found this article on the funeral home featured in the show. While familiar with the iconic HBO series, it was not yet must-see-TV for North Jersey funeral home owner, James J. Cozzarelli Jr.

“Actually, I don’t have cable. I have rabbit ears,” Cozzarelli says.

And the colorful Cozzarelli has become a celebrity. Although an elder actor (Ralph Lucarelli) played him for the first few episodes, the real man has since appeared as the show’s funeral director.

Cozzarelli, who now has his own design business, calls his upstairs home the “secret rooms.” Though viewers never got to see them, because “Sopranos” creator David Chase was afraid of damaging the priceless, palatial-style finishes and furnishings (including several optically pure crystal chandeliers that are so sensitive one has to don surgical gloves to touch them), Chase and his cast loved to hang out up there during breaks.

“Except Paulie,” Cozzarelli says of actor Tony Sirico. “He never came up. Deathly afraid.”

Today’s tip for better living: BAD BREATH IS BETTER THAN NO BREATH!