This week, I spent some time with a friend who was in town visiting from Japan. She told me about the ceremony in which her family recently laid her father to rest. After making their final goodbyes, the body was cremated in a process that took about two hours. Following the cremation, the family was invited to personally collect all remaining bones with chopstick-like tools and place them in an urn. This tradition that she has three times taken part in was created to begin the process of closure for the family. Perhaps more than anyone I know, she seems to be at a certain peace with her loss. I can’t imagine how an urn designed to look like a loved one could possibly provide this kind of peace.