Communicating Last Things

Strategies for Teaching about Death and Dying

Through the ArtsGail Henson, Ph. D., Bellarmine University

What are the essential questions?

• Since dying and death happen to all humans, the questions will vary with

• Age

• Stage of life

• Religion

• Culture

• Reasons for dying

Questions asked….

• Why is life so fragile?• Why is everything living

transient?• How do I deal with

suffering? How can I deal with pain or discomfort as I die?

• Do I fight death or do I embrace it?

• Why am I suffering?• What is quality of life?• What is the meaning of

my life?

• What is my legacy?• What is a good death?• What will the hour of my

death be like?• Can I prepare for death?• Does anyone care about

my death?• Does my death affect

anyone?• What loose ends need to

be tied up before I die?

More questions…

• What will happen to my body after death?

• Will I continue suffering? Will I be reborn into a new existence or into a cosmic nothingness?

• How do I go into the next stage? Is it dark or light? Is there a life after this?

• What is heaven (or hell) like?

• Will there be angels or demons?

• Will I see God (or a devil)?

• Will there be a judgment?• Will there be people,

places, or animals I know?

The Eight Dimensions of Death Anxiety as they relate to

the Deaths of Self and Others

Self

• Process of dying• Fear of dependency

• Fear of pain in dying process

• Fear of the indignity in dying process

• Fear of loneliness, rejection & isolation

• Fear of leaving loved ones

Others• Process of dying• Fear of financial burdens• Fear of going through the

painful experience of others

• Fear of being unable to cope with the physical problems of others

• Fear of being unable to cope emotionally wit problems of others

• Fear of losing loved ones.

Anxiety about the State of being dead

Self

Afterlife concerns

Fear of an unknown situation

Fear of divine judgment

Fear of the spirit world

Fear of nothingness

Others

Afterlife concerns

Fear of the judgment of others—“What are they thinking?”

Fear of ghosts, spirits, devils, etc.

State of being dead

Fear of the finality of deathFear of not being able to

achieve one’s goals

Fear of the possible end of physical & symbolic identity

Fear of the end of all social relationships

Fear of the fate of the bodyFear of body decompositionFear of not being buriedFear of not being treated with

respect

Fear of never seeing the person again

Fear of the end of a relationshipGuilt related to not having doneEnough for the deceasedFear of not seeing the person

again Fear of losing the social

relationship Fear of death objects Fear of dead bodies Fear of being in cemeteries Fear of not knowing how to act in

death-related situations.

The mere thought of death

How can the arts help us in our journey toward understanding

death?

What can the arts do?

The arts can be a catalyst enough to enable grieving, to stimulate the search for meaning, and to initiate change—or a least negotiate a truce with the status quo.

With the mediation of the arts, poetry, drawing, psychodrama, music and so forth, we and our clients become involved...in heightened identification, catharsis, and insight.

The beauty of the process is its openness to interpretations, jogging both us and those entrusted to our care out of our old ruts of perception toward enlarged understandings and possibilities.”

Arts can “refresh, inspire, remind, and upon occasion, to jolt.”

Sandra Bertman, Grief and the Healing Arts, 3.

The Arts Transform…

• The arts are an agent of self-expression and therefore are transforming in nature. The artist begins with an ephemeral idea, a vision, or possibility. Then the artist faces the blank page and, in doing so, his or her fears as well. As the visions meet concrete reality of materials, the artist sheds preconceptions and steps into the unknown. The reality of the evolving art work is a product of growth and discovery.

• The artist is empowered not only by self-expression but by tangible nonverbal knowledge. This seed of transformation is present in every art-making process and can help to prepare patients for their final transformation, death.

From: C Regina Kelley’s essay “Transformations: Visual arts and Hospice Care” in Bertman, Creativity and the Healing Arts.

Transformational power of the arts

• The arts address all of these areas (emotional , physical, and spiritual) functioning as an animator, that which endows life or spirit. The arts reawaken the senses often ignored during long illnesses. They address what is possible rather than what is lost. They bring beauty, joy, and every form of expression into a time that we often assume to be unbearably painful.

Kelley, in Bertman.

Concepts seen in most arts

• Momento mori

• Arts moriendi

• Dans macrabre

Exercises

• Exercise 1 My First Experience with Death

• Exercise 2 Death Anxiety Scale (DAS

Communicating Last things Part II

The Visual Arts

Death

In the

Sickroom

Munch

“The Dead Mother”

Edward Munch

XLIX. The Allegorical Escutcheon of DeathThe coat or shield is fractured in several places. On it is a skull, and at the top the crest as a helmet surmounted by two arm-bones, the hands of which are grasping a ragged piece of stone, and between them is placed an hour-glass. The supporters are a gentleman and a lady in the dresses of the times.

Hans Holbein—

The Dance of Death, 1520s

The Alphabet of Death

The orchestra of Death. From Der Doten Dantz, Printed by Heinrich Knoblochzer, Heidelberg, 1490

Inferno : Canto XVII : The Descent of the Abyss on Geryon's Back

Inferno : Canto III : The Doomed Souls Embarking to Cross the Acheron

Inferno : Canto XXVIII : The Severed Head of Bertrand de Born Speaks

Inferno : Canto XIX : Dante Addresses Pope Nicholas III

Inferno : Canto XIII : Harpies in the Forest of the

Inferno : Canto XXXIV : Lucifer, King of Hell

Bosch

Hell

Brueghel The Triumph of Death

Brueghel The Fall of Icarus

http://www.phxart.org/logo_images.html

William Blake

The Ancient of Days

Guernica Picasso 1937

The Plague Drawings Clint Brown A response to AIDS crisis

Death of SocratesJacques David 1787

Christ in Paradise sitting in the lap of Abraham

Blake: Apocalyptic view of the end

Blake: Ghost of Samuel appearing to Saul

Communicating Last things Part II

Literature

Literature

• George Herbert

• John Donne

• Robert Frost

• Emily Dickinson

• Wallace Stevens

• Leo Tolstoy

Herbert “Mortification”How soon doth man decay!When clothes are taken from a chest of sweetsTo swaddle infants, whose young breathScarce knows the way;Those clouts are little winding sheets,Which do consign and send them unto death.When boyes go first to bed,They step into their voluntarie graves,Sleep bindes them fast; onely their breathMakes them not dead:Successive nights, like rolling waves,Convey them quickly, who are bound for

death.When youth is frank and free,Ande calls for musick, while his veins do

swell,All day exchanging mirth and breathIn companie;That musick summons to the knell,Which shall befriend him at the hour of death.When man grows staid and wise,

Getting a house and home, where he may move

Within the circle of his breath,Schooling his eyes;That dumbe inclosure maketh loveUnto the coffin, that attends his death.When age grows low and weak,Marking his grave, and thawing ev’ry yeare,Till all do melt, and drown his breathWhen he would speak;A chair or litter shows the biere,Which shall convey him to the house of

death.Man, ere he is aware,Hath put together a solemnitie,And drest his herse, while he has breathAs yet to spare: Yet Lord, instruct us so to die,That all these dyings may be life in death.

John Donne Holy Sonnets• VI• Death be not proud, though some have called thee• Mighty and dreadfull, for, thou art not soe,• For those, whom thou think’st, thou dost overthrow• Die not, poore death, nor yet canst thou kill mee;• From rest and sleepe, which but thy pictures bee,• Much pleasure, then from thee, much more must flow,• And soonest our best men with thee do goe,• Rest of their bones, and soules deliverie.• Thou aret slave to Fate, chance, kings, and desperate men,• And doest with poison, warre, and sickness dwell,• And poppie, or charmes can make us sleepe as well,• And better than thy stroake; why swell’st thou then?• One short sleepe past, wee wake eternally,• And death shall be no more, Death thou shalt die.

Emily Dickinson 712Because I could not stop for Death—He kindly stopped for me—The Carriage held but just Ourselves—And Immortality.We slowly drove—He knew no hasteAnd I had put awayMy labor and my leisure too,For his Civility—We passed the School where Children

stroveAt Recess—in the Ring—We passed the Fields of Gazing Grain—We passed the Setting Sun—Or rather—He passed Us—

The Dews drew quivering and chill—For only Gossamer, my Gown—My Tippet—only Tulle—We paused before a House that seemedA swelling of the Ground—The Roof was scarcely visible—The Cornice—in the Ground—Since then—‘tis Centuries—and yetFeels shorter than the DayI first surmised the Horses’ HeadsWere toward Eternity—

“Goodnight, Willie Lee, I’ll see youin the morning” Alice Walker

Looking down into my father’sdead facefor the last timemy mother said withouttears, without smileswithout regretsbut with civility“Goodnight, Willie Lee, I’ll see youin the morning.”And it was then I knew that the healing of all our woundsis forgivenessthat permits a promiseof our returnat the end.

Milton Methought I saw my late espoused saint

Methought I saw my late espoused saintBrought to me like Alcestis from the grace,Whom Jove’s great son to her glad husband gave,Rescued from death by force, though pale and faint.

Mine, as whom washed from spot of child-bed taintPurification in the Old Law did save,And as such yet once more I trust to haveFull sight of her in heaven without restraint,

Came vested all in white, pure as her mind.Her face was veiled, yet to my fancied sightLove, sweetness, goodness, in her person shined

So clear as in no face with more delight.But O as to embrace me she inclined,I waked, she fled, and day brought back my night.

John Milton 1608-1674

Dylan Thomas “Do not go gentle into that good night”

Do not go gentle into that good night,Old age should burn and rave at close of

day;Rage, rage against the dying of the light.Though wise men at their end know dark

is right,Because their words had forked no

lightening theyDo not go gentle into that good night.Good men, the last wave by, crying how

brightTheir frail deeds might have danced in a

green bay,Rage, rage against the dying of the light.Wild men who caught and sang the sun in

flight,

And learn, too late, they grieved it on its way,

Do not go gentle into that good night.Grave men, near death, who see with

blinding sightBlind eyes could blaze like meteors and be

gay,Rage, rage against the dying of the light.And you, my father, there on the sad

height,Curse, bless, me now with your fierce

tears, I pray.Do not go gentle into that good night.Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

Tolstoy, The Death of Ivan Ilyich

In addition to the lie, or owing to it, what tormented Ivan Ilyich most was that no one gave him the kind of compassion he craved. There were moments after long suffering when what he wanted most of all (shameful as it might be for him to admit) was to be pitied like a sick child. He wanted to be caressed, kissed, cried over, as sick children are caressed and comforted.

Tolstoy, The Death of Ivan Ilyich

Where was death? What death? There was no fear because there was no death. Instead of death there was light.

“So that’s it!” he exclaimed. “What bliss!”All this happened in a single moment, but the significance of this

moment was lasting. For those present, his agony continued for another two hours. Something rattled in his chest; his emaciated body twitched. Then the rattling and wheezing gradually diminished

“It is all over,” said someone standing beside him. He heard these words and repeated them in his soul.“Death is over,” he said to himself. “There is no more death.”He drew in a breath, broke off in the middle of it, stretched

himself out, and died.”

Communicating Last things Part II

Music

Music

• For those who are dying, hearing is the last of the senses to go.

• Music is a way of telling a story and of inviting singers to accept a role in that story.

• Music can articulate the rich subtleties experienced in suffering and joy. It releases a wider spectrum of emotions than can be released by confessional formulas or historical reconstructions.

• It evokes the sense of mystery that surrounds such homespun words as death and life.

• It uses sounds as a band of communication with the encompassing Silence. (Minear 18)

Forms

• Hymns• Requiems• Cantatas• Masses• Spirituals• Gospel music (Christian)• Chanting• Program music

Brahms German Requiem

• All flesh is grass…transitory nature of life but there is ultimate hope

I Peter 1:24, “For all flesh is as grass, and all the glory of man, as the flowers of grass. The grass is withered, and the flower is fallen away

James 5.7: “Be patient, therefore, brethren unto the coming of the Lord. Behold the husbandman waited for the precious fruit of the earth, and hath long patience for it until he receive the early rain and the later rain.”

“the word of the Lord endureth forever” (I Peter 1:24-5)

“the ransomed of the Lord shall return and come to Zion; everlasting joy shall be upon their heads; they shall obtain joy and gladness and pain and sighing shall be made to flee” (Isaiah 35.10)

Brahms German Requiem, III

• Lord, make me know the end of my days…Awareness of transitory nature of life.

Lord, make me to know that there must beAn end of me, and that my life has a term,And that I must hence.Behold, Thou hast made my days as an handbreadth; and mine age is as nothing before Thee.Verily, every man at his best stateIs altogether vanity. Psalm 39The souls of the righteous are in the Hands of God, and there shall no Torment touch them. Wisdom of Solomon 3:1

Brahms German Requiem, III

Psalm 84: 1, 2, 4How lovely are thy dwelling places, Lord of

Hosts!My soul longs and yearns for the forecourts of

the Lord;My body and soul delight themselves in the

Living God.Blessed are they who live in your house,They praise you ever more.

Themes in The German Requiem

• Grief/comfort• Exile/homeland• Weeping/shouting• Despair/hope• Suffering/joy• Stinging death/stingless death• Frustration/fulfillment• Sowing/harvesting• Labor/rest• Earthly cities/heavenly city• Aloneness/fellowship• Emptiness/blessedness• Withering/abiding• Defeat/victory Minear

Music about Death

• Requiem masses: (meaning-- rest eternal) by Palestrina (1554); Schutz (1636); Cavalli; Mozart,Berlioz, Listz, Verdi, Faure, Durufle, Stravinsky, Rutter (1986);

• Dies Irae Berlioz Symphonie Fantastique, Liszt Totentanz (1859); and Symphonie zu Dante’s divine commedia (1867); and Rachmaninoff’s Rhapsody on a theme of Paganini (1935); Penderecki’s Dies Irae—1967—Holocaust victims—first performed at Cracaw

Berger

African American spirituals

• Sometimes I feel like a motherless child;• Nobody knows the trouble I’ve seen• In my trials Lord, walk with me.• There is a balm in Gilead.• He never said a mumbalin’ word.• Where you there when they crucified my lord?—• When the Saints Go Marching In• Wade in the Water• Gospel Train ‘A Comin’

» Berger

Program music: non-musical images or stories

• Danse macabre—dance of death, skeletons dancing ina graveyard. Listz’s totentanz (piano and orchestra); Saint-saens’ Danse macabre—Op. 40, 1874

• Beethoven: Pathetique• Schubert: Death and the maiden• Chopin Marche Funebre• Berlioz: Symphonie Funebre et Triomphale• Strauss: Death and Transfiguration• Rachmanioff: Isle of the Dead• Shostakovich: Symphony 13—Nazi massacre of Jews in

Kiev, 1962• Barnes Trail of Tears for band 1989—Cherokee

– Berger

Hymns• 1523 Out of the Depths Aus Tiefer • 1529 A Mighty Fortress is our God Ein

Fest burg• 1601 O Sacred head, now wounded,

12th century; Passion chorale• 1225 All creatures of our God and

King; tune 1635• 1636 Now Thank We all our God—

Nun Danket Alle Gott 1636• 1675 “Sing Praise to God who reins

above” 1566 Mit freuden zart• 1774 God moves in a Mysterious way ;

Dundee 1621• 1779 Amazing Grace; New Britain,

American Folk Tune• 1831 “Come, Ye Disconsolate” 1792

Consolator• 1719 My Shepherd will supply my

need” 1835 Resignation• 1787 How Firm a Foundation • O Come, O Come Emmanuel (Latin

hymn trans 1854); based on plainsong phrases

• 1847 Abide with Me 1861—Eventide• 1873 It is well with my soul (Ville du

havre 1876)• 1868 There’s a land that is fairer than

day, sweet by and by• 1740 Jesus Lover of my Soul

“Aberyswyth 1879• 1882 O Love that will not let me

go .1884 St. Margaret• 1752 Be Still my soul (Finlandia) 1899• 1864 For all the Saints Sine Nomine

1906• 1888 O Lord of Life Where’er they be.

Gelobt sei Gott 1609• 1923 Great is thy faithfulness; 1923

Faithfulness• 1916 God of our life, through all the

circling years; Alberta 1931• 1953 Hope of the world; Vicar 1963• 1986 Hymn of Promise

Death is inevitable, but so is new life through grace (Christian)

Handel’s Messiah Since by man came death…..

By man came also the resurrection of the dead. Even so in Christ, shall all be made alive

Trust along the journey

• Wade in the water

• We shall walk through the valley

• Psalm 23 (Celtic and contemporary British)

Wade in the Water

• God works in mysterious ways

We shall walk thru the valley

• Psalm 23

Celtic version of The Shepherd Psalm 23

• “The King of Love My Shepherd Is”

Rutter: Psalm 23

• The Lord is My Shepherd

The Journey Home

• Steal Away to Jesus

• Glory Train “Get on Board!”

• Train Bound for Glory

Steal Away to Jesus

• Comfort in the Lord

Glory Train “Get on Board”

• Journey to heaven--

Train Bound for Glory

• Are you ready for the final trip?

Assurance and Trust

• Amazing Grace

• I Know That My Redeemer Liveth

• A Mighty Fortress is our God

• Oh God, our Help in Ages Past

Amazing Grace

• Comfort and hope

Celtic Amazing Grace

• Haunting, ethereal tones………

Handel: I know that my Redeemer Liveth

A Mighty Fortress is our God

• God as ultimate refuge

Hymn: Oh God Our Help in Ages Past

• Contemporary version

What’s your image of heaven?

• Walking in Jerusalem

• Hallelujah Chorus

Bluegrass Walking in Jerusalem

• Heaven

Handel Hallelujah Chorus

• Assertion of God’s omnipotence—some feel this is how Heaven will sound, full of angels singing…….

Where the soul of man never dies

• Eternal life

Final sounds of comfort

• The Lord’s Prayer

• Benediction—The Lord Bless You and Keep You

• Irish Blessing

Prayer: The Lord’s Prayer

• Prayer of comfort, consolation, hope

Rutter: The Lord Bless You and Keep you

• Benediction

Communicating Last Things

Part III

Experiential Component

• Creating your own mandala

• Creating a poem

• Creating a musical form

Part III Creating Your Own Mandala

Written component. Definition of topicWrite the words that come to mind when you hear the word death.

Visualization. Close your eyes and think about the various occasions in which you have been affected by death. Remember where you were, who was with you, words used, and how you felt. Then open your eyes.

Feelings. Which of the following feelings did you have when you were affected by death?Shocked Upset AngryScared Sad LonelyHopeful Relieved Other

Color-feeling match. Select a color for each of the feelings listed above and indicate those colors by the words.

5. Proportion of the color-feelings. Color in part of the circle for each feeling. If the feeling was big, then make it a big part of the circle. If it was small, color in a small area [proportion]. You may use the same color for more than one feeling as long as you label it clearly.

Exercise II Creating Poetry about Last ThingsHaikuA haiku is a form of Japanese poetry with three lines.The first line has five syllables, the second seven, and the third five.While the subject is usually nature, you can adapt it for your own purpose.

Cinquains are five line poems. They can be written as syllable cinquains or word cinquains.When writing a syllable cinquain, the order of the lines is thus: 2, 4, 6, 8, 2 syllables.When writing a word cinquain, the order of lines is thus: 1, 2, 3, 4, 1 word.

Syllable cinquain:• Line 1 Title (key concept, image) 2 syllables• Line 2 Description of title/concept/image 4 syllables• Line 3 Action associated with it 6 syllables• Line 4 Feelings associated with it 8 syllables• Line 5 Synonym for the title 2 syllables

Word cinquain• Line 1 Title/concept/image 1 word• Line 2 Description of title/concept/image 2 words• Line 3 Action associated with it 3 words• Line 4 Feelings associated with it 4 words• Line 5 Synonym for the title 1 word