Lughnasa Waxing Artemis Moon
Spoke with the folks at Dadant. They found my order and have begun to ship the honey extractor and other parts of the Ranger extraction kit. 5 boxes from different locations. Sounds like they’ll arrive before I have to pull the honey.
A wet, cooler morning with a hot day later and tomorrow to follow. We continue on our stormy way. Minnesota, that’s right, our Minnesota, leads the nation in tornadoes this year. By a lot. We have had 50 more than either Texas or Oklahoma. Maybe tornado alley has found me and wants me back. Paul Douglas says it’s due to a blocking slump in the jet stream that holds weather patterns here that would normally be further south.
Kate and I watched a Japanese movie the other night, “Departures.” In it a young cellist gives up the cello after his orchestra dissolves. He and his wife move back to his home in a small town by the ocean. There he applies for a job listing seeking a person to help with departures. A misprint. It should have read departed.
I don’t know how common the rite of casketing is in Japan, but it involves, in essence, performance of what we consider an undertakers job (the cosmetic part, not the embalming which seems not to be part of the job) in front of the mourners. The body is then placed in a coffin, also called encoffining, and transported to the crematorium where the equivalent of a graveside service occurs. The whole process seems humane, accepting of death and the reality of grief.
As with most Japanese movies I’ve seen that have funerals, this one has a comedic side, too.
The movie pulls the heart, not in contrived ways, but in its honest depiction of difficult human moments, sensitively portrayed. Highly recommended. Available on Netflix.
