There are many contrasting approaches to the arrangement of funerals, from the relgious to the secular. But after five deaths and four funerals over the last two years, it seems to me that the humanist way of death is the most salutary. This is because it accepts one simple truth. Human life is constructed like a story. It has a beginning, high points, low points and then ends – definitively. The humanist way of death recognises the fact that you will die and that when you do, that will be the story of you. From the viewpoint of a our human, third person narrative, isn't the idea of heaven a little irritating? A life, like a good book, should never end in: " ... to be continued." Life only really makes sense as biography. In contrast, religious funerals, where a stranger usually officiates and witters on about heaven, often fail to commemorate a life well lived properly. Religious funerals can be a whimpering anti-climax. When Uncle Heini died this month at...