I have never actually had an open supply of HBO streaming to my home television so I've had to rely on less direst methods of viewing. There was a time a few years ago when Bravo bought the rights to air the award winning HBO series Six Feet Under. Of course it was edited down for network viewing but I had little else going on in my life at the time so over some 7 months I watched the entire series - some episodes more than once.
Apart from the entertainment value, I found that I gained a great deal of philosophical, historical, and cultural insight from the show. This is something that I've noticed major network programming tries to do and perhaps they think they are even succeeding in with their use of rolling narration monologues from one or more characters that serve as Jiminy Cricket outlining the theme for that particular episode - Grey's Anatomy stands out most in my mind as using this technique in nearly every episode. I've found though that this only serves to shift my mood for that hour or maybe even that day. What I got from 6FU was a great deal more and it has remained with me to this day. Not to say that I hadn't considered it an Industry before but in my mind this was only a part of one's life when someone very close to them died and arrangements had to be made to dispose of them. Through the show I saw death as a working industry that people seek out careers in and not just a job they fall into because they aren't good at anything else.
As death in general is something American culture does not approve as of as common conversational material, I had little reason to ever speak or even think of it. The show gave me a fly-on-the-wall observation point of the inner workings of the postmortem processing industry (even if they were the dressed up theatrical version) and I was completely fascinated by it. I also found that I saw value and even nobility in a profession that had been filed under shady and undesirable in my subconscious mind. I found that I examined the cultural and historical significance of mortuary -as no doubt one of the oldest professions - and began to consider the same significance of other similarly filed ideas in my mind. At different times and places the processing of the deceased was so important and honorable it was done only by the highest religious figures. That is certainly not the case in modern America but it should be held with the same degree of importance and respect. I had seen anything but in my very limited observations.
When I was 12 my great grandmother died and I attended her viewing. I remember the cheap feeling of the decor in the the funeral home, it reminded me of disposable picnic flatware and didn't reflect her 80 some odd years of life. She was the most beautiful woman I had known but in an effort to slow her body's natural decomposition process for as long as possible - to allow for friends and family to come from across the country and not be offended at the sight (or smell) of her - she had been pickled from the inside and painted on the outside. I was not accustomed to seeing her in makeup of any kind so it was most odd to me to see every visible inch of her slathered with off hue foundation. Lying there she looked more like John Boehner's mother and not the porcelain skinned woman I had known.
I understand that the physical evidence of death is most hard for people, especially when the body displays the lack of oxygen to the cells and the blush color of blood filled capillaries are gone, but the tan-face stage makeup was even more disturbing to me. I felt like someone had skinned, tanned, and spread her over a wooden form. I would have rather seem her just as she was even if that was a grayish-blue pasty hue.
Of course we look highly on the doctors, engineers, journalists, master chefs and such, but what of the hospital janitors and laundry workers, the laborers and mechanics that actually construct and maintain the structures and machines engineers design, the dish washers and the wait staff at any given restaurant? We certainly don't say - at least out load - that the people who hold these positions are lesser but we do see the position itself as lesser. Would you want your kid to come home and announce they want a career as a (fill in any of the examples above or your own). They point I'm making is that there are many professions we see as being for other people who we see as lesser than ourselves, if not intrinsically than at least as holding a lesser station in society. This form of classism holds true across the world where irreplaceable vocations are shamefully hidden in the shadows when in fact they are due respect and admiration equal to any other. If you, dear reader, are now, have been in the past, or find yourself at some future point given station in a job that seems unwanted, either by yourself or by other, consider it's true significance and take pride in yourself and the work you do... as both are of great value.
I would prefer we judge people on their own character and quality of work than on the social status held by their employment but I would love to see those statuses not be seen as lesser. If you question the significance of sanitation when compared to doctors, have both sets go on strike in your district and see which you're missing first. I have known a beloved international nonprofit founder and CEO who was quite unworthy of the admiration given to her and shoe sellers, mill workers, plumbers, painters, prep cooks, and immigrant housekeepers and au pairs who are as intelligent, kind hearted, and honorable as any person should aspire to be. Quote Sherlock Holmes: "I assure you that the most winning woman I ever knew was hanged for poisoning three little children for their insurance-money, and the most repellent man of my acquaintance is a philanthropist who has spent nearly a quarter of a million upon the London poor." I give much credit to Six Feet Under (and some other television programs) to turning a switch in my brain that now allows me to process thoughts with a great deal less presumption and prejudice. In 40 minute installments I was given as much insight into my own thinking than years of philosophy study at top universities has provided me.
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