Welcome to Death and Crackers, a place to explore the sacredness and profoundness of life and death. I’m sure you might be wondering about me and about the name Death and Crackers. I’m Raine Shakti and by day I’m an IT professional and by nights and weekends I’m a student of life and, more recently, of death. I got an MA in Spirituality, Culture, and Health from Western Michigan University in 2020 and the classes that fascinated me were the classes about death and dying.
As a result of that fascination, I went on to earn an MS in thanatology from Marian University. Thanatolgy is the study of death and loss. During my coursework at Marian I studied so many fascinating topics including women and death, African American Deathways, Suicide, perspectives on death and more. I became even more fascinated and I’m working on pursing a Phd with a death related focus. Although there is a part of me that still thinks it is a little weird to study death, I’ve learned that there are a lot of really cool and mostly normal people who study death related topics.
As for Death and Crackers, my first thought for my blog was death and taxes, but that wouldn’t be very original, would it? I ended up with Death and Crackers because funerals and food go hand in hand, at least in the United States. After every funeral I’ve ever been to, there’s been a repast (just a fancy way of saying feast) where people have told stories about the deceased, mourned their loss, and reconnected with the living.
So what can you expect to find at Death and Crackers? In many ways it’s like those repasts after funerals as there will be a little bit of this and that including:
My academic writings: I’ve spent a lot of time learning about and writing about death and a lot of what I’ve learned is pretty interesting so I figured I’d share it with you all.
Personal writings: Sometimes I’ll share my personal writings, mostly unbacked up by resources, on subjects related to death, dying, grief, etc.
Cemetery writeups: It sounds a little weird to say cemetery reviews, but I like to meander through cemeteries and I’ll share photos and my thoughts on one’s I’ve visited.
Reviews of movies, podcasts, and books: There are a lot of books, movies, and podcasts out there about death and dying (and no, I’m not talking true crime). I’ll share my thoughts and work to put a thanatological spin on things.
New–Weekly wrap up: I’ll be launching a weekly newsletter style wrap up in July with recent postings, links to other blogs, and links to relevant news articles.
Thanks so so much for sharing this journey through life and death with me.