I came home from work last evening, greeted the family, changed clothes, and began reading the mail. This week's Newsweek was there, so I began flipping through. Early on I came to this rather striking ad: it said, "It's 1998. You're DEAD. What do you do now? Just for a minute, think the unthinkable. Think about when suddenly you're not there." And then the ad goes on to try to sell life insurance. (1) Years ago, a friend of mine who was an insurance agent would approach potential clients on the street and say, "I had a dream about you last night...I dreamed you died...and you didn't have insurance!" The amazing thing to me is that is approach actually worked - he made a fine living.

Death IS a fact of life. One of the first sections in the newspaper many turn to is the obituary notices. …