Anyone feeling creative? I need help with a starting sentence.

[seaglass]

I have a paper due tonight and I need a starting sentence to get things flowing. I'm staring at my laptop with a dried up brain. I wouldn't use your exact sentence but it might help to stimulate my mind.

The paper is on death and the rituals surrounding it in Judaism, Islam, Buddhism, Hinduism (and maybe Christianity).

And p.s. if anyone is Hindu and knows the significance of tying thumbs together and big toes together I would appreciate it if you could let me know.

[azmouse]

1. Maybe a quote from the Bible will help?

1 Corinthians 15:54-55:
54 So when this corruptible shall have put on incorruption, and this mortal shall have put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written, Death is swallowed up in victory.
55 O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory?

[seaglass]

3. Thanks, you've got me thinking...my problem is that the

research I did is mostly technical and I need more spiritual.

[ohiosmith]

2. "It was a dark and stormy night."

[seaglass]

4. A great opening sentence....I think I heard it somewhere before.

:-)

[ET Awful]

7. Damn. You beat me to it, I was gonna say that

:P

[Dora]

5. bartleby.com is always good for quotation trawling

QUOTATION: Death, the most dreaded of all evils, is therefore of no concern to us; for while we exist death is not present, and when death is present we no longer exist.


ATTRIBUTION: Epicurus (c. 341–271 B.C.), Greek philosopher. letter, Menoeceus 125, Epicurus Letters, Principal Doctrines, and Vatican Sayings, trans. by Russel M. Geer, Bobbs-Merrill Co. (1964).

http://www.bartleby.com/66/77/21677.html

[seaglass]

6. Ohhhh, I like that. Thanks. n/t

[billyskank]

8. "The night was humid"

:thumbsup:

[skygazer]

18. Sultry

The night was sultry.

[ET Awful]

9. I'm going to have to go with

Consider the lilies of the goddamn field. . . .

[ZombieNixon]

10. Start with an emotional uplift:

Death.


:P

Edit: since it's short, I'll give you a second sentence, as well:
Death. It will enslave us all.

Nice, happy stuff.

:bounce:

[neweurope]

11. I used to be a journalist and know the problem well.

The solution usually was: Start ANYWHERE. Start writing, even if it's right in the middle. Then watch things click into place, and the grand opening usually comes last.

---------------

Remember Fallujah

Bush to The Hague!

[seaglass]

15. I think that the idea is just not formed in my brain. But you're

right, I need to just write...I can tell this paper is going to be really lame:-(

[neweurope]

19. That's what I and all my collegues often thought, and usually

it was an unneccessary fear :) When I REALLY had a problem, I went technical: I just listed my facts one after the other. Then I tried to bring them to an order that had a main fact up front and then the least important and I gradually build up from there to the most important facts. Then I tried to find good connections between those. And usually while I was doing this the idea for the beginning popped up. It will for you, I'm sure :)

So have courage and START.

-----------------

Remember Fallujah

Bush to The Hague!

[seaglass]

21. You're right....off I go. Thanks. n/t

[BlueIris]

12. Here goes:

"It has not gone unnoticed that rituals associated with death and dying are among the most sacred and significant of all rites practiced by humankind."

[seaglass]

17. Yes, I need to focus on the sacred. thanks n/t

[trof]

30. Sorry. Wordy.

"Rituals associated with death and dying are among the most sacred and significant of all rites practiced by humankind."

Also, a matter of opinion, in my opinion.
Birth, baptism, confirmation, coming of age, and marriage are at least of equal significance in many religious rites.

[TheBaldyMan]

13. Casper Weinberger is dead.

[DS1]

14. Okay

It wasn't long after strapping myself into a Toyota Corolla sporting 500 pounds of fertilizer and diesel that I realized Buddhism was likely a less violent option, yet on the other hand, Guadalupe and I were on our way to blow up the local fat man statue and hopefully several of his toga-befrocked henchmen.

( sorry, I was channelling Hunter Thompson for a moment )

[seaglass]

16. OK, I'll try to put that in my own words..wouldn't want to

plagiarize:-)

[oneighty]

20. When one is dead

things are a lot different. For example it might come to pass that your big toes are tied together. But you will not mind at all as you cannot walk anyway.

180

[seaglass]

22. Lovely. That brought a smile. Thanks. n/t

[oneighty]

26. You are welcome

Smiles are necessary from time to replace the worry wrinkles.

BOTOH What I say is very true.

Isn't it true that Oedipus (The Grecian tragedy guy) had his feet tied together and left for dead as a child?

180 hahahahaha

[northzax]

23. some options

1: This breaking news just in, Generalissimo Francisco Franco is still dead. -Chevy Chase

2: (one I've actually used, no less) So, I'm fucking this chick, and all of a sudden I think...

3: 'To the well organized mind, death is but the next great adventure' Albus Dumbledore

4: 'our lives are made by the deaths of others' -leonardo da vinci

5: 'The worms go in, the worms go out, the worms play piccolo on your snout'

[Texaroo]

27. "Bring out your dead."

The Monty Python take.

"It has ceased to be. It is no more. If you hadn't nailed it to the perch, it would be pushing up the daisies. It has gone to meet its Maker. This is an EX-parrot!!!"

[northzax]

28. i' m not dead yet!

I'm getting better!

[NNadir]

24. Here's a stab:

"What we love, most of us learn, is more than flesh."

[NNadir]

25. Here's my suggestion.

"What we love, most of us learn, is more than flesh."

[trof]

29. "Christians eat their dead."

At least ritualistically, as in the wafers and wine of their "communion".
"The body and blood of Christ".

There's your start.
The rest is up to you.
;-)

[trof]

31. Due tonight? TONIGHT?

Rots a ruck.
:eyes:

[Catfight]

32. "As I fixed my eyes on the powered pores of his cold dead hand...."

[EstimatedProphet]

33. .

"So I call up my preacher
I say: gimme strength for round 5
He said: you don’t need no strength, you need to grow up, son
I said: growing up leads to growing old and then to dying,
And dying to me don’t sound like all that much fun"

The Authority Song-John Mellencamp

[masshole]

34. found this about the thumbs and toes

The only reference about the thumbs I found is that is done to represent a Namaskar.

For the toes, it appears it comes from a ritual beginning in the Vedic period.
"The corpse was washed (Atharvaveda V19.4) and the big toes tied together with a bunch of twigs, lest death should walk back to the house after the corpse was sent out (Atharvaveda V.19.12)."

From this page http://216.109.125.130/search/cache?p=hindu+thumbs+and+toes+tied&prssweb=Search&ei=UTF-8&fr=my-vert-web-top&x=wrt&u=www.sanathanadharma.com/samskaras/antyesti.htm&w=hindu+thumbs+toes+tied&d=GlafYBbfMbg8&icp=1&.intl=us

Good Luck!

[seaglass]

36. Thanks for this, it's more info than I could find. n/t

[mzteris]

35. Sixty thousand years ago,

Neandertals interred a member of their clan with flowers, a bear skull, and a ring of stones in Shanidar cave.

[Starbucks Anarchist]

37. Okay:

"The homogeneity of death is subject to a wide array of post-mortem rituals in various religions."

Best I could come up with.

:shrug: