The work begins! Before the "fun and frolicks" which I'll tell you about later I did do some work! I spent the first week in Bath at the Centre for Death and Society at the University of Bath. A great welcome awaited me with Glennys Howarth CDAS Director, taking great care of me. CDAS has a number of wonderful programs but the one that really inspired me was a foundation degree they conduct for Funeral Directors......wonderful initiative. In addition, Glennys's major interest is in ritual and after death care, so of course we have a lot in common. We had a number of indepth discussions about how we treat the dead both immediately after their death and how we prepare them for burial, interment or cremation. We also talked a lot about how we maintain relationships with those who have died. I also got to catch up with an ex-Melbourne friend, Allan Kellehear who hadn't seen for three years, which was great!
Glennys linked me in with the Centre for Interdisciplinary Arts people who had some great ideas about linking performance, visual and creative arts with death education and care of the dead. Mulling over all of this information while I slept, I must say I thought of some brilliant ways of applying some more 'radical' approaches to what we do at home, particularly around memorialising, so watch out........I'll be coming home ready to shake things up a bit!
Bath University is a beautiful place, with grounds filled with gardens and walking paths, a lovely environment for the students! I even stumbled across a group of guys playing 'footy' on one of the lawns, must say I felt like asking a few of them if they were interested in playing for Collingwood.......'nough said!
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