No, you weirdo Guardian journalists, it would not. Because I'm not dead. And when my funeral does happen, I may be the theme, but it will not really be about me. It'll be about the living getting together and comforting one another. Or about whatever they want. Because I'll be dead.

What kind of a maniacal ego maniac asks everyone close to them to all gather together and talk about how wonderful they are so they can watch?

Call it a celebration of life instead of a funeral

Nothing like a good ad hominem to try to make a point, eh?

This, as currently worded, is a criticism of birthday parties as well

If you knew for a fact you were gonna die tomorrow, would you still go into work?

I don't know--this seems pretty consistent with our society's growing self-absorption and narcissism. A living funeral falls squarely within today's "I Am The Main Character" vibe.

That's a very western phenomenon, though. Maybe even very American...

Nightmarish.

These people think they're so special for being terminally ill. Don't they know that happens to everyone? There's nothing more banal than getting cancer.

And I can write annoying comments like this one!

Oh wait, we're doing a different thing...

"" Oh Emelie has having another funeral. I get to write a new speech How fun. ""

You have the living funeral. You can even have the coffin and all of that.

Once it is over. The person has an induced complete metabolic failure. The person is quickly placed into the coffin. The procession for the burial can commence.

Give or take an hour it's pretty much the same as a real funeral.

What better way to say goodbye to friends and family?

But saying "literally by definition" for something that has nothing to do with the definition doesn't feel like emphasis, it feels like lying.

Sounds pretty literal to me. Not letting a suffering person die.

I think my mother would have appreciated something like this when she had cancer. Sadly, she was in denial about her state of health and only admitted to herself that she was dying when she only had a week left.

But, these things don't have to be called "Living Funerals." We would have had a larger 50th anniversary party for my parents, (about a year after her diagnosis,) if we'd been a bit further out of Covid.

This trend of living “funerals” seems a symptom of a horribly messed up culture.