Death and Capitalism by:
Joie Peña It’s a funny thing when you begin to plan for your own death. You begin to sleepily search “Google cheap wills” and remind your partner about your 6 figure debt. You compile lists of bills and think about all that you will owe. All that you will owe, as if that is the legacy you will leave. That is the main concern for your partner, not the many hours of memories or where he will hang your wedding dress or his head when he learns of your last breath... You scramble to put life insurance and retirement accounts in his name, wonder if he will be responsible for your collections and your pulse quickens when you contemplate the stress he will endure over the financial implications of a funeral, so you quickly decide that you will, against your Jewish faith, burn your body and donate what’s left and have a celebration of some kind, somewhere, in a park, in a house, on Zoom, for fuck’s sake because the world is closed and because your life is expendable but your debt is not.
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