Episode 2 – Wrap The Present

The present is a gift you give to yourself. Choose wisely and wrap it well.

Episode Notes

This is our Death Perception podcast and I’m Joe Casper. Our podcast discusses all of the myths and mysteries of the funeral business. We also talk about living life and doing the best you can for as long as you can. If you do nothing, time will pass and if you do something, time will pass, so you are clearly better off doing something.

I want to talk a bit about me. I am a person of varied and extensive background experience and portfolio. I’ve been in the funeral business for decades. I’ve been an elected official, a marketing and advertising executor for both private and public agencies. I founded and headed up a consumer advocacy group, and that’s a very big reason why I’m doing this informational podcast. I believe that knowledge and information is so important and I am a student of living life.

But then, enough about me. Let’s talk about you. Let’s talk about death’s perception. Wrap the present is your now. The present is a gift you give to yourself. Choose wisely and wrap it well. Living life is so important. The only two absolutes in life are chronology, the passage of time and the ultimate statistic, one death per person. Here is to living the best life. Someday there’ll be an ultimate need but that someday is not today. In our Death Perception podcast, we will talk about all aspects of funerals and making funeral arrangements. The funeral business is truly the last unknown frontier that people have been so reluctant to talk about. We will talk lots about choosing and paying for funeral services. Funeral services are our fertile subject for discussion.

Someone once asked my father, “Joe, how much does a funeral cost?” My father said, “When you die, we will tell you.” The point being, years ago, no one talked about funeral costs and even more so, talk about their own funeral. One thing is for certain, when it is your time to go to club med in the sky, you are going.

A woman I knew would always turn her coffee cop so she would hold the cup handle with her left hand. She told me that she did that because there were fewer left-handed people who drink coffee and as a result, there would be fewer germs on the cup. Unfortunately, she got hit by a bus. You never know.

Not talking about funerals was then, this is now. Why our Death Perception podcast? Until the grim reaper comes calling, you should be doing the best you can for as long as you can. That’s why today’s podcast is wrap the present. It’s all about the now. The present has been my personal slogan for years. The present. Choose wisely and wrap it well, it’s a gift you give to you. It’s either a good present for you or a non-acceptable gift, so choose wisely and wrap it well, it is indeed your best now.

Everything in life is onset duration and remission. Whatever you do, wherever you go, there is a distinct beginning, middle, and an end. The key is to enjoy the duration more. Make what you like doing or choose to do last longer. You do chew your food 32 times, each onset and remission is the beginning and end for every personal adventure.

You go into a restaurant and there was no soap or paper towels in the bathroom. Is that a good present for you? Do you stay or leave? For me, anytime it is a maybe it is a no, this is for any situation. If it’s not a good gift for me, it’s not a good present, it’s not a good now. Choose a new now.

We will also talk about the myths and mysteries of the funeral business. As my mother would say, “Always get a second opinion.” A woman goes to the doctor and the doctor tells her this. She has very high cholesterol and that he is going to put her on some very strong medicine that may have some serious side effects. She replies, “Serious side effects? I want to get a second opinion.”

The doctor looks at her and says, “Okay, you have psoriasis too.” That is not exactly the second opinion she wanted or expected. If you have a need to make funeral arrangements, if your own Sadie were to die, who would you call or what would you do? What would you do when you are faced with an unexpected funeral emergency? Where and how do you get that second opinion?

A person meets with a psychiatrist and there was a couch and a chair there in front of the desk. The person asked the psychiatrist, “Does it make any difference where I sit?” And the psychiatrist replies, “No, not at all.” So the person sits in the chair. The psychiatrist leans across the desk and says, “Aha, everything has meaning.” The person asked, “Should I have picked the couch?” Five sessions on why he picked the chair over the couch because everything has meaning.

Everyone has an opinion. People love to speculate, neither of which has meaning. It is your personal agenda that is important. It is your intention that is important. Avoid being a robot. What is your personal life agenda? Once again, the present, choose wisely and wrap it well, for everything you do in life, you are in effect planning to plan a plan. You’ll then plan a plan and then have a plan.

I consider myself an expert and knowing how to get work done through others. I boast that I have a master’s degree, a PhD and a doctorate in knowing what I don’t do well. The key is to find what you need done completed by others who can do what you need done better than you could do it.

An engineering friend of mine was going to do some carpentry work for me as a friendly favor. He showed up with all of his tools and he said, “I’m going to show you how to do this.” I said, “I don’t want to know how to do it because you know how to do it and I know what I do well, and this is not what I do well.”

So we get into separate cars and we head over to home depot to get some lumber. When he got out of the car, he said, “I’ve been thinking, what do you do well?” I said, “I order well on a good Italian restaurant, and when I am in California, I drive to La Jolla and go to the Valencia Hotel, get a drink, put my feet up on the railing of the balcony and watch a beautiful sunset. That’s what I do well.”

It’s important to know you, know what you do well and what you don’t do well. As we do more Death Perception podcast, you and I will seek inspiration from a fresh and transparent perspective. Until next time, this is our Death Perception.

Everyone, thanks for listening. If you enjoyed this Death Perception podcast, if you could do me a favor and share it with a friend, please subscribe to be the first to receive information on our newly released Death Perception podcast. As my mom always said, “Life is a present, wrap it well.” I’m Joe Casper.