The Other Hand by Chris Cleave

I'm reading this book at the moment and there has been a very poignant scene in it. A little boy aged four is discovering death for the first time in his life.

Mummy, why did those Bruce Wayne men putted that box down in the hole? 


Lets not think about that now, darling.
I'd spent so many hours explaining heaven to Charlie that week- every room and book shelf and sandpit of it- that I'd never really dealt with the issue of Andrew's physical body at all. I thought it would be too much to ask of my son, at four, to understand the separation between the body and soul. 


Charlie then asks later...Is that box Heaven? 

I think its so incredible how much we can learn from children and how sometimes their views on life seem so wonderful and simple that sometimes you wish you could live in their world. The scene in this book is horrific but the book itself is amazing and I strongly suggest it to anyone who hasn't read it before. It got me thinking about Children's views on death. Even though at first they do not understand it, it will soon become something that will ultimately effect how they see the world. Or am I just talking crap?

Clem So

" I am portraying my ancestors, but also through my genealogy, they are also are portraying themselves. Portraying my ancestors and questioning my Chinese identity are not separate. By portraying my ancestors, I am questioning the very core of how I came about. I use the notion of Chinese ink as a metaphor for my forever changing state, the expansive possibility of being and for something ancient, before my time that courses through my veins now, but reflecting like a mirror to my inseparable environment.

Tracing the intangible is a sensation, a yearning, seeking, a sense that I can feel, but cannot touch.”

Akroterion of the grave monument of Timotheos and Nikon, ca. 350–325 B.C Source: Marble Akroterion [Greek, Attic] (07.286.107) | Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History | The Metropolitan Museum of Art

The Greeks believed that at the moment of death the psyche, or spirit of the dead, left the body as a little breath or puff of wind. The deceased was then prepared for burial according to the time-honored rituals.

http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/dbag/hd_dbag.htm

Egyptian Afterlife Ceremony

Ancient Egyptian civilization was based on religion; their belief in the rebirth after death became their driving force behind their funeral practices. Death was simply a temporary interruption, rather than complete cessation of life, and that eternal life could be ensured by means like piety to the gods, preservation of the physical form through Mummification, and the provision of statuary and other funerary equipment. Each human consisted of the physical body, the 'ka', the 'ba', and the 'akh'. The Name and Shadow were also living entities. To enjoy the afterlife, all these elements had to be sustained and protected from harm.

The Garden of Earthly Delights