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an old speech

the journal of Michael Werneburg

twenty-seven years and one million words

Tokyo, 2010.03.13

I was doing some maintenance on my website today and came across the text of the first funeral speech I ever gave.

It's for my grandfather and is now just turned eleven years old. Looking back, I think it holds up pretty well. A nasty job, writing a funeral speech.

rand()m quote

It has always seemed strange to me...The things we admire in men, kindness and generosity, openness, honesty, understanding and feeling, are the concomitants of failure in our system. And those traits we detest, sharpness, greed, acquisitiveness, meanness, egotism and self-interest, are the traits of success. And while men admire the quality of the first they love the produce of the second.

—John Steinbeck, Cannery Row