Eric's Celebration of Life - October 14, 2023 (Order of Service/program)

Celebration of Life

Eric Moss 

July 28, 1988 - September 26, 2023

“Let your weird light shine bright, so the other weirdos know where to find you.”

Celebration of Life – Eric Moss - October 14, 2023

3:00 p.m.  Gathering Music (a collaborative playlist from Susan, Chico, Sarah, Rob, and Duyen) and Slideshow

3:30 p.m.  Prelude Music:  Background Scenery by Nick Annis (performed by Nick)

Gathering In/Opening Words:  Rev. Amy Carol Webb, Minister at River of Grass Unitarian Universalist Congregation

Reading:  On Joy and Sorrow by Kahlil Gibran (read by Mari Carroll, Susan’s sister)

Thoughts on Life and Death:

-         Rev. Amy – weave open

-         Reading: Dear Sugar’s advice column#78: The Obliterated Place (Susan’s edit, read by Rev. Amy)

-         Rev. Amy – weave closed

Music for Reflection:  No Hard Feelings by The Avett Brothers(pre-recorded)

Tribute/Eulogy:  Rev. Amy, followed by Susan and Chico, Sarah and Rob, and Duyen, sharing their memories of Eric.  We invite other family members to speak if they choose, and then would like to open the floor to friends who wish to share. If time runs short, or if you would prefer not to speak publicly, find our friend Buck Brinson *after* the service and he is glad to video your remembrances privately.

Remembrance/Reflection by Family and Friends

Video Remembrance:  produced by The Ace Crew, and E's Besties; background music is Midnight Hour by SDIB

Music for Reflection:  Company of Friends by Danny Schmidt (performed by Nick Annis)

Reading:  Desiderata by Max Ehrmann (read by Pat Hilton, Chico’s sister)

Sending/Closing Words:  Rev. Amy

Postlude Music: A Surprise! (pre-recorded); No pressure, but… please sing along if you are so inclined!

Let the Wild Rumpus Begin! (E loved Where the Wild Things Are… 😊) 

Slideshow resumes.  We invite you to stay for light appetizers and shared memories, in the same room or downstairs in the Chickee (Seminole word for Home) Hut, continuing until 6:30 p.m.

 

From the Moss Family:  Continued thanks to all for your love, help, support, “space and grace”, as we navigate this challenging time.  We miss our Eric!

 

Susan’s Optimistic Voices blog/ongoing grief journey:

https://optimisticvoices.blogspot.com/

Dirge Without Music by Edna St. Vincent Millay

I am not resigned to the shutting away of loving hearts in the hard ground.

So it is, and so it will be, for so it has been, time out of mind:

Into the darkness they go, the wise and the lovely.  Crowned

With lilies and with laurel they go; but I am not resigned.

 

Lovers and thinkers, into the earth with you.

Be one with the dull, the indiscriminate dust.

A fragment of what you felt, of what you knew,

A formula, a phrase remains,—but the best is lost.

 

The answers quick and keen, the honest look, the laughter, the love,—

They are gone.  They are gone to feed the roses.  Elegant and curled

Is the blossom.  Fragrant is the blossom.  I know.  But I do not approve.

More precious was the light in your eyes than all the roses in the world.

 

Down, down, down into the darkness of the grave

Gently they go, the beautiful, the tender, the kind;

Quietly they go, the intelligent, the witty, the brave.

I know.  But I do not approve.  And I am not resigned.