August 24, 2005
Transition - To What?
I noticed that Newsweek calls its Obituary section "Transition." Isn't this a tad euphemistic? This sounds like business jargon to me, the softening of the edges of what can only be considered bad news, viz., death. Death is so awfully grim and dreary, let's call it something else! It's bad, but maybe in another sense it's something good...a transition. To be fair, I think Newsweek also prints birth and marriage notices here, but the point still stands - should we mix and match when it comes to death? I mean, really, "transition" to what? Death? "Congratulations," I imagine a voice intoning from the Great Beyond, "you have successfully transitioned from life to death!" Or: "I'm going through a period of transition. I'm between lives." Is there a metaphysics implied here - the assertion of an afterlife, something, in other words, to which one may transition? I'm just asking.
(From an email I recently sent to Richard M. Smith, Chairman and Editor-in-Chief of Newsweek. I'll update 3QD if any response is forthcoming.)
Posted by J. M. Tyree at 03:39 PM | Permalink
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Comments
You don't have to know what something is transitioning into to know that it has transitioned.
If you watch me walk down a hallway and turn into a doorway, you may not know what's on the other side of the door (maybe a room, maybe a parking lot, maybe a waterslide into the ocean) but you know that I've transitioned out of the hallway. When someone dies, Newsweek doesn't know what the person has transitioned into. But it's clear what they've transitioned out of.
Posted by: Death | Aug 24, 2005 10:27:48 PM
There you go again, Death, always trying to round the edges on your grim work. Looks like you've planted one of your functionaries in the Newsweek editorial staff looking for some good spin.
Try a little honesty, Death. New Age lingo aside, your platform, in reality, offers infinite nothingness and little else. It's time to level with your constituents.
Posted by: Life | Aug 25, 2005 10:10:55 AM
As for leveling with my constituents, I think my record shows that I haven't neglected my elected duties once.
But, until I fulfill my mandate with you, you're free to call me whatever you like and free to continue building up institutions (or to write letters to magazines) to promote your particular explanation of me.
Either way, my platform doesn't change.
Posted by: Death | Aug 25, 2005 1:05:18 PM
I suppose it's more of a transition for the rest of us, who must now go through life without someone that used to be a part of it.
Posted by: ladygoat | Aug 25, 2005 5:13:03 PM
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