A related problem concerns a lot of clergy and other religious people: the boom in "celebrations of life" instead of funerals.

Sometimes "celebrations of life" are just funerals by another name, and they're not an issue. What are an issue are the "celebrations of life" that have no components of traditional funerals but are just big parties with lots of jollity: cakes, jokes, balloons, and Led Zeppelin's "Stairway to Heaven" on a sound system in secular setting.

Pastoral counselors say that with their enforced "happy talk," these "celebrations" violate a basic principle of grief counseling: Let people grieve in their own way. They deprive the religious of the great comforts that can come from the traditional funeral readings: e.g., "Let not your heart be troubled ..." in the Book of Common Prayer for Anglicans and "May the souls of the faithful departed ..." for Catholics.

I've been planning to write about this trend when there's a lull in the arrival of books and other cultural artifacts I want to comment on, but that never seems to happen, and you may inspire me to do it regardless. Thank you!