Traditionalism

17 December 2007



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Few Takers for Electronic Headstones

Vidstone LLC, with offices in Florida and Colorado, has developed a new kind of tombstone. Rather than just a granite or marble chunk with a few words carved into it, the “serenity panel” can show photos, music, and even video in addition to a few well-chosen words, powering the screen with solar energy. The trouble, from Vidstone’s view, is that they aren’t selling. Some times traditions die hard.

In the modern first world, there are some rather silly death rituals, and there are some that are plain morbid. In more traditional societies, their customs surrounding death are possibly more in tune with man’s place in the universe, but not necessarily so. The point is that human beings draw comfort from these habits when a loved one dies.

Selecting a tombstone is one of those things that focuses the mind on the departed. What would Uncle Bob want? The angel carved into the marble or the plinth of granite with just the name and the birth and death dates? Uncle Bob, wherever he may be, certainly doesn’t care. But the death rituals are about the living and their grief.

So, when a new idea comes along, like the serenity panel, it bumps up against those things that comfort the living. Selecting what would go on the panel, what music, what video clip, would actually be more personal and spark more of the good memories than carving something in granite. It’s just hard to convince many people.

Doug Ellis, owner of Riverview Monuments in Wausau, Wisconsin, sells the panel. He is convinced that it will catch on. “I see no reason. why I couldn't stand in front of a video camera and give a message to my grandchildren, such as: 'Faith in the Lord was important to me.'" Not a bad idea, although one might prefer, “If there was a blacklist anywhere, I wanted to be on it.”

© Copyright 2007 by The Kensington Review, Jeff Myhre, PhD, Editor. No part of this publication may be reproduced without written consent. Produced using Fedora Linux.

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