R. had an interesting observation on the idea of the remains and the departed. First off, we say "Dearly Departed" and often, the phrase "Dearly Beloved" is used in wedding ceremonies or opportunities for the minister to speak broadly to the community. Remember gloves and gold rings...maybe there is a link here. Another point was that we speak about the departed and not the remains addresses the memory we have of a person. Yes, we remember their physicality and what they look like, but the memory of what they were--their spirit, their life source, their being transcends this and is captured by the word departed.

I also think that the phase some people use instead of the departed is thus and so "passed" or "passed on". Will need to ruminate on that for a while.

The slides are done and burned on a dvd and also a flash drive to have some back up in addition to bringing my powerbook to Syracuse. There always seems to be some sort of glitch that happens and want to be prepared in case today is the day the bytes byte. I think, for now, I have it knocked. I eliminated a few slides this morning and output the slides 6 up and have taken notes on that...so it should go alright. R. proclaimed that if the slides were up, all I needed was to be brief, be myself and go on. If I forgot anything, no one would know as the pix are why they are there. So, deep breath. I am not nervous--just anxious to get this behind me as there are buckets of work and illustrations that have been put on pause to get this done. But to that, now I have a basic presentation done that will work with other clients etc. Seeing one's work in this format spurs change. We all should do it.

Change, that is.