When Words are not Enough: Creative Responses to Grief (Quickthorn)

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The words are proof, for all effective purposes, of there being understanding somewhere in their genesis, but in these cases that understanding is not in the speaker. In most human contexts we rightly take it for granted that the speaker understands the words they speak and what they are used to say — no doubt arises. Plagiarism and recitation are exceptions where the speaker looks like they are the comprehending source of the thoughts expressed but are not. Possibly our favourite chapter in the book is ‘Out of Time’ in which Jimmy describes an early project involving the production of anthotypes, photographic images produced by laying a transparent material over paper coated with vegetable dye. As there’s no way to ’fix’ such an image, the project became a way of exploring our sense of being in time while Josh is now out of time.

Words Are Not Enough / I Know Him So Well (UK CD single liner notes). Steps. Jive Records, Ebul Records. 2001. 9201452. {{ cite AV media notes}}: CS1 maint: others in cite AV media (notes) ( link) But that is still not enough for the kind of human understanding I have been speaking of. A robot — I mean a stilted, mechanical automaton of hard metal and plastic — may be able to mow your lawn and clean your house, but it cannot luxuriate in the aroma of a freshly mowed lawn or appreciate the beauty of the garden it tends. As it washes your clothes and irons them it does not know the significance clothes have either as ornamentation or as modesty or as protection. It does not shiver in the cold or feel ashamed or embarrassed at being exposed in public, or enjoy the sensation of velvet or wool. It may be built to imitate some of the environmental movements humans typically display in response to cold or danger like moving away and seeking out heat or safety, but it does not do so because it is afraid or anxious. And if it does not do these things, it is not because it is brave or spartan. In case studies they illustrate how creativity can shape a future where the deceased still play a part even while physically absent and how this is a normal and restorative aspect of the grieving process. Breaking through the silence is essential, both for our own sanity and to widen a more compassionate conversation about death, dying and bereavement.‘ When Words Are Not Enough’is the result of much searching, of much trial and error, lots of experiments to find a new way of grieving, a new way of living, of being active and doing stuff, and of trying to find a more equitable language to express grief. We hope that in the book you might find resonances with your loss and maybe find inspiration to tell your story.

When Words are Not Enough: Creative Responses to Grief

Eurochart Hot 100 Singles" (PDF). Music & Media. Vol.19, no.52. 22 December 2002. p.23 . Retrieved 8 March 2020. I know that my father had the best intentions that night. But the lesson I ended up learning was not, I think, the lesson he hoped to teach. The lesson I learned is that confession and obedience are primarily about saying the right things— the formulaic things, the expected things, the pious, dutiful, “Christianese” things. For years afterwards, I failed to understand repentance as a multidimensional action— an engaged and ongoing action of the heart, mind, soul, and body. Just spout the words the grown-ups want to hear, I told myself as a kid, and they’ll leave you alone. Just talk like a good Christian, and you’ll be one. If this overall line of thought is sound, then the price of machines achieving thought in the human sense is their losing precisely that utility which we have mainly made them for and value in them. The vindication of AI would be its nemesis. We would not so much have artificial intelligence — where intelligence is thought of as essentially the same thing in current day machines as in humans — but artificial human beings. We humans remain the measure. What computers cannot do And yet even then— even when you saw countless others embracing the Gospel, you refused to change your minds. And so the prostitutes and tax collectors, the people at the bottom of your religious hierarchy of goodness and badness, will enter God’s kingdom ahead of you. Throughout history people have needed to talk about their grief, but much in contemporary society tells us that grief is a depressing, morbid subject. When Words Are Not Enough is a necessary counterweight to those who would have us hide our grief away. In both word and image, all the stories told here , from visual storytellers who reimagine their loved ones depicted in their lives now, to artists who have taken their children’s artworks as a basis for their own creations, to those who have found peace in their music and their poetry, to some who relish the challenge of diving into cold waters as a way of connecting with their children. All are very different and uniquely creative responses to trauma following the death of a loved one and testament to the value of a shared and more openly expressed grief.

Or am I the son who says the wrong thing, but finally repents and obeys, anyway? The son who might not sound all spiritual and sanctified, but still does the work of love and mercy when the rubber hits the road? The son who recognizes that God is still at work, here and now, doing new things, transformative things, salvific things? The son who changes his mind when new truth, new life, new possibility, and new hope, reveal themselves? The chief priests and elders know that if they admit that John the Baptist was a prophet sent by God, Jesus will ask them why they rejected John’s teaching, and refused his invitation to repent and receive baptism. At the same time, they know that if they say John was nothing more than a self-deluded charlatan, the crowds— who love John— will turn on them. So they refuse to answer the question. This first publication from The Good Grief Project explores the many ways that bereaved families find to express their loss. The authors’ son was killed in a traffic accident in 2011. Ten years on they reflect on their journey and how they have used their creativity to survive their grief and maintain an on-going relationship with their son Josh. Jane Harris is a psychotherapist and bereavement specialist. Jimmy Edmonds is a photographer and documentary film editor with over 100 credits on TV productions including the BAFTA winning Chosen for Channel 4. Together they run Active Grief Retreats as The Good Grief Project. This is their first book, exploring active and creative responses to grief and how they can help you to survive.

The Good Grief Project

W]e must decide what kinds of creatures we wish to be, and what kinds of lives of value we can fashion for ourselves. What do we want to know, to understand, to be able to accomplish with our time on Earth? That is far from the question of what we will cheat on and pretend to know to get some scrap of parchment. What achievements do we hope for? Knowledge is a kind of achievement, and the development of an ability to gain it is more than AI can provide. GPT-5 may prove to be a better writer than I am, but it cannot make me a great writer. If that is something I desire, I must figure it out for myself. When Words are Not Enough explores the many ways that bereaved families find to express their loss. The authors’ son was killed in a traffic accident in 2011. Ten years on they reflect on their journey and how they have used their creativity to survive their grief and maintain an on-going relationship with their son Josh. Hales ends with the remark: “What it is to lead a meaningful life is something we must decide for ourselves.” This is not a problem the computer faces so it is not something it can do better or worse than us. It does not suffer existential crises and moral perplexity. Even if it wrote a greater novel than Crime and Punishment, in one way — the most important one to us — it would not understand a word of it. So let’s take another step. Siri guides us by using an internally stored representation of the road system, receiving satellite data to update the map and determine her car’s position in the system at any moment. She does not have her own direct interface with the road and traffic environment, like a camera in the front of the car. But adding some such environmental sensor is the obvious way to facilitate a more intimate synchronisation with the world that Siri’s words are about.