Have you ever been asked a “simple" straightforward question by someone and realized the answer is not as simple as the question purports it to be? The reason for that is partially because questions, in their asking, sometimes hold within them, all of the attachments and assumptions made by the one asking them. Here's an example: “Do you believe in God?" The question holds within it, two very interesting things; an assumption that the person receiving it, believes or does not believe, in the God that the questioner has in mind; and the question implies that the person receiving it should give a “yes" or “no" answer. A more revealing and thoughtful question might be “what does God mean to you?" And so it goes with many things. The questions we ask are most often based upon the “yes" or “no" answer and based upon what we already think we know.
In any service industry (and of course, I'm thinking funeral service; but also, police service, healthcare, government), questions and answers can be a gauze that we shyly speak through or hear an answer through, but not as clearly as we would like. In a service industry, it is, or should at least be understood, that the person asking the question would not necessarily be fully informed about the question they are even asking. And so, it behooves us, those in service to the public, to CLARIFY and INFORM. The foundational word for the public to rest their conviction on, is in the word “SERVICE" which implies a few things, otherwise that service is lacking.
In any service industry, it should be automatically accepted, without a doubt, that the answer to a anyone's question be, 1. thorough, 2. honest and 3. provide additional options related to the question asked. When someone asks me a question about cremation, for example, I answer their question with as much information as the answer requires, I answer it honestly so that nothing can be misleading, and I explain to them what aquamation is; another option, which is directly related. As a professional in any field of work, particularly in service to the public, there is a responsibility in the information one gives. No small part of that responsibility is to INFORM. This post is to inform, as are all of my posts - whether informational or philosophical. They're all written from the seat of “service." Number ONE thing! That's why I absolutely LOVE “the question." Because people have stretched themselves enough to ask it!
As with many things in this world; through organizations or beliefs or discoveries - there is always a flipside that can be exploited beyond any well-meaning intention. An extreme example is the splitting of the atom. Energy created and controlled for the “betterment" of living, becomes energy unleashed in the form of an atom bomb. In funeral service, the analogy is poignant. The “atom bomb" has already happened; your loved one is dead. For the spreading of goodness in the world in which we live, let not your questions go unasked and let not my answers, fall short! Clarify and inform = SERVICE.
It is, for that reason that you see that persistent “R" logo flash up on your computer screens each week. Because I want to GIVE THE INFORMATION. I can hear some folks out there and I can certainly guess what some are thinking. That this is advertisement, pure and simple. That I want Rutherford's to be the funeral home you choose when you need or want to choose. Well, that may be a by-product of any words I might write publicly perhaps, but that's certainly not why I write them. A funeral home is not a retail store. For someone living in this weird and wonderful world of service, it IS the service on which we thrive; and information given, above all else, is the first and foremost function of any funeral home that is “in service" to the public.
Like you; I will need that service myself one day. I want to live and die with a clear and clean conscience. It is, after all, the ONLY thing any of us have any real control over.
QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS
