A namesake

In the margins of looking at reference 1, previously noticed, I came across reference 2. Must be good, I thought to myself, with a name like that. Not to mention the dialectical contradictions, which took me back to my student days, when we talked about but did not understand - at least in my case - something called dialectical materialism.

For once, Google did not do the business. It found the paper easily enough, but no free copy. Just an invitation from Taylor & Francis to part with £41 - whose pricing I have always found puzzling. Who is going to part with £41 for sight of a oldish paper from the Journal of Applied Communication Research, fine journal though it no doubt is?

Hopefully most of those who have a more legitimate reason to look at it than me can get at it through some kind of institutional subscription.

Bing however could do my business, turning up a free copy from the Internet Archive. My modest subscription with them continues to earn its keep.

The author of the paper graduated from the Abilene Christian University (of reference 3), a private Christian university located in Abilene, Texas, affiliated with the Churches of Christ (of reference 5).

There is a modest amount of God in the paper, most prominently in the form of the angel pins seemingly worn by some parents who have lost a child. Bing Shopping knows all about these pins, as snapped above. While we have never known a couple who have lost a child, other than through miscarriage or stillbirth - although I do remember the slight awkwardness, quite a few years ago now, around a colleague who had just lost an adult son in a car crash in Spain while on holiday there (or somewhere else of that sort). And I wondered whether people in the US are more up for talking about their griefs and their losses than we are here in the UK. The present author seemed to have had no trouble finding a dozen or so people who had lost a child, willing to spend several hours with a stranger with a tape recorder, talking about it all. People who were found by prior involvement with groups like that at reference 7.

We also have talk about Relational Dialectics, the invention of the Russian philosopher Mikhail Bahktin, and about constant-comparative analysis, which was used to identify and develop categories and thematic patterns. Both of which might bear further investigation.

More immediately relevant for me, in the context of the poles and masks of the Pacific northwest, some useful background on the role of symbols and rituals in mourning, in this case for a lost child. But I think it generalises to other kinds of significant loss.

PS: I assume that the author is no relation. Our name is not common, at least not in English speaking countries, but it is not rare either. I once had a bunch of them, from somewhere in the mid-West, as Facebook friends, and they were not related. Lost when I deleted my Facebook account in the wake of some scandal or other.

References 

Reference 1: Giving Meaning to Grief: The Role of Rituals and Stories in Coping with Sudden Family Loss - Julia Janelle Barnhill - 2011.

Reference 2: Negotiation of Dialectical Contradictions by Parents who have Experienced the Death of a Child – Toller, P. – 2005.

Reference 3: https://acu.edu/.

Reference 4: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abilene,_Texas.

Reference 5: https://churchesofchrist.co.uk/. 'The church of Christ originally established on the day of Pentecost, A.D. 33 and the central guidance for churches of Christ is provided by the Lord from heaven.   Local congregations are led by elders in accordance with the New Testament (Titus 1:5-9; 1 Timothy 3:1-15). The practices and teachings of each congregation are based solely on the Holy Scriptures which equip us fully for every good work (2 Timothy 3:14-17)'. But there is a rather half-cooked feel about this website.

Reference 6: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pentecost. Whitsun to the less faithful.

Reference 7: https://www.compassionatefriends.org/.