You Could Use a Mourning Routine
Modern capitalist culture has trained us to expedite or even skip grief and mourning, but it's essential for our collective mental health.
We've erased death, and now it's killing us.
There's thousands of articles out there on morning routines. They'll tell you when to wake up and what yoga poses to do. How many articles out there talk about mourning?
Not that many.
We used to know how to mourn. It was normal. We had mourning routines. They weren't just for people. You could mourn anything. You could mourn an idea or a way of life.
There was a process.
It helped.
When someone died, they did it at home surrounded by their families. The dying put their last energy into final words. Their loved ones took care of them. After someone died, you stopped all the clocks in the house. You covered all the mirrors. You told elaborate death narratives. You often embellished them with supernatural details. You took a photo with them.
For months, you wore black.
Themes of death dominated art and literature. Leaders mourned their dead for years, even decades. They remembered them. They might even carry around a memento mori, like a dead re…