EXCUSE ME? CELEBRITY FUNERALS ARE "DIFFERENT"?...MAYBE, BUT NOT IN A GOOD WAY...

I watched a video clip from the Associated Press of Ms. Farrah Fawcett's funeral. What a beauty she was...she truly "stomped on the terra"....RIP Ms. Fawcett...

During the video, a Mr. Eliot Tiegel spoke about "celebrity funerals" and how "entertaining" they are and how different they are from ordinary funerals....really?.....He talked about how musical it was and how celebrities showed up and how "very stirring" the funeral was....he called it a "show business funeral"....and then he went on to explain that Ms. Fawcett's son, Redmond, was able to attend, in handcuffs because he was allowed out of jail for the event; oh! and he was accompanied by three plain-clothesed policeman as he read a psalm at his mother's funeral...that was show-bizzy...

I really dislike (and I'm using that word lightly) the "glorification" that celebrity brings to people. Farrah Fawcett was stunningly beautiful and rocked the world in the 70s, it's true, but she was a celebrity...not Mother Theresa. She didn't feed a multitude, she didn't perform miraculous feats. She was a celebrity. Thousands of good people die daily without plaudits or fanfare. Their funerals are quite stirring, thank you very much Mr. Tiegel. Most of them even have family members attend without handcuffs OR cops. Occasionally, there is music; sometimes crying. How's THAT for stirring?

I would challenge anyone to have more fun AND tears at a funeral than we did when my children's father passed away in May. The love in that building was palpable! It was plenty "stirring", but also plenty of laughing...our family has been known to combine the two (love & laughter)...maybe too much....

Example: The funeral was held in the same building where Don and I raised all of our children. None of the kids have done "time". We're so proud. Each of the children spoke. They've all spoken in this building from the time they were small children. Quite small. Two of the kids, the ones mentioned below, spoke from this same pulpit to give their missionary farewells. But I digress....

Emily speaking to the crowd from the pulpit over the coffin of her father: "One weekend when I was in college, I called home begging my dad to send extra funds so I could travel to Salt Lake for the weekend with some friends. He said he would send me some money on the condition that I promise to take care of him when he got old. I guess I scored on that one!"

Eli's turn: "Once, as we were ... driving.... my father hit the brakes suddenly. A baby bird was struggling in the middle of the street. He wordlessly got out of the car, carefully and lovingly picked up the baby bird with his huge hands, walked over to a nearby front yard, and situated the baby bird into a line of shrubbery where he made sure the bird was safely placed out of harm’s way as much as possible. He then returned to the car and silently drove us home. He never said a word, but the lesson by his example was never forgotten. That lesson was that the weakest and most vulnerable among us deserve the loving attention of the strongest and mightiest."

The stories went on: The kids catching their dad giving money to the homeless, sometimes it was everything in his pocket; my brother weeping for the "big brother" he never asked for, but got anyway; and did I mention that there were no handcuffs or cops in the entire place?...and get this....not one celebrity.