I know she's still with us. (She's sitting right over there.)

I found this June NYT article a bit disturbing: some funeral home directors have been placing dead people in lifelike, meticulously personalized poses for their own funerals.

It's easy enough to see this as just a continuation of the standard individualistic funeral treatment, honoring people's hobbies and interests. Instead of lying in a racecar-shaped coffin, the deceased appears to be actually driving a racecar! It's whimsical and particular and "so him."

But if you're a mainliner who keeps up with your reading, it's hard not to read such a piece through Tom-Long-colored glasses. Long articulates theological concerns about the move toward "memorial services," among other reasons because the person who died doesn't tend to be invited. At first glance, dressing up a body and propping her up to play cards or whatever may look like the other extreme: here she is, the guest of honor.