The Styx Chyx

09/07/2022

08/22/2022

Happy Monday, Everybody! :-)

~The Marginal Mennonite Society

08/15/2022

September 22-24

08/14/2022

The Afterlife
Billy Collins

While you are preparing for sleep, brushing your teeth,

or riffling through a magazine in bed,

the dead of the day are setting out on their journey.



They’re moving off in all imaginable directions,

each according to his own private belief,

and this is the secret that silent Lazarus would not reveal:

that everyone is right, as it turns out.

you go to the place you always thought you would go,

The place you kept lit in an alcove in your head.



Some are being shot into a funnel of flashing colors

into a zone of light, white as a January sun.

Others are standing naked before a forbidding judge who sits

with a golden ladder on one side, a coal chute on the other.



Some have already joined the celestial choir

and are singing as if they have been doing this forever,

while the less inventive find themselves stuck

in a big air conditioned room full of food and chorus girls.



Some are approaching the apartment of the female God,

a woman in her forties with short wiry hair

and glasses hanging from her neck by a string.

With one eye she regards the dead through a hole in her door.



There are those who are squeezing into the bodies

of animals–eagles and leopards–and one trying on

the skin of a monkey like a tight suit,

ready to begin another life in a more simple key,



while others float off into some benign vagueness,

little units of energy heading for the ultimate elsewhere.



There are even a few classicists being led to an underworld

by a mythological creature with a beard and hooves.

He will bring them to the mouth of the furious cave

guarded over by Edith Hamilton and her three-headed dog.



The rest just lie on their backs in their coffins

wishing they could return so they could learn Italian

or see the pyramids, or play some golf in a light rain.

They wish they could wake in the morning like you

and stand at a window examining the winter trees,

every branch traced with the ghost writing of snow.

07/16/2022

Join us for an open forum discussion of Death Cafés led by as panel of esteemed facilitators, followed by an actual Death Café using the traditional … | 07.20.2022

07/03/2022

A very New Mexican sentiment. 🌶😆

Chicken for extra points

06/24/2022

♻️ Recycled Post ♻️

Think back to when you were a kid. Do you remember the first time an adult talked to you about death? Was it out of the blue, or was it prompted by a death that you experienced, perhaps that of a pet or a family member? What do you remember about this conversation?

👧🏿🧒🏻

With the sudden emergence of the COVID-19 pandemic and its many casualties, adults are now finding ourselves confronted with the opportunity to discuss death with our children. How we choose to talk about it — as well as how often — can help shape kids’ views of death. In the present moment, COVID-19 may be prompting new questions from kids, which can provide an entryway to listening and sharing.

🥰

Portland-based publishing company A Kids Company About recently released ‘A Kids Book About COVID-19’ by author Malia Jones, who is a social epidemiologist. (Este libro también está disponible en español y es gratis.) You can download the FREE ebook here: https://akidsbookabout.com/pages/covid-19

📖

Like all meaningful conversations, we can learn so much by simply listening and asking questions. Here are some suggestions to kick off a kid-friendly conversation about this serious topic:

- How are you feeling right now?
- Is there anything you’re worried about?
- What have you heard about the novel coronavirus?
- What are you and your friends talking about?
- Do you have any questions?

❓

Have you talked to any kiddos about death? Any tips? Please share them below! 👇

06/17/2022

“A student freaked out because there was a spider in my room. When she tried to kill it, her classmate asked if she remembered the poem (by Nikki Giovanni) about not killing things you’re afraid of and gently removed the spider and took it outside.

I’m going to retire now.”
- Chanea Bond, Teacher

06/16/2022

A cartoon by Roz Chast.