Forword t Neil Dorward's new book by Dally Messenger III

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	Neil Dorward has just about completed his book. It will be published shortly. Dally Messenger has written this short Foreword as a taste of what is to come. FOREWORD BY DALLY MESSENGER III PRINCIPAL, INTERNATIONAL COLLEGE OF CELEBRANCY POLONIUS - What do you read, my lord? HAMLET - Words, words, words. (Hamlet 2.2) Human beings mainly communicate through words, and words are important. Words - and how they are spoken, can change the course of history. George Bush Senior won a presidential election in the U.S.A. by asking three words “Where’s the beef?” Winston Churchill stirred and inspired a nation with his words: “We will fight them on the beaches … “ or his simple but ringing 1940 tribute - “Never in the field of human conflict was so much owed by so many to so few.” John F. Kennedy has these words on his tomb – “Ask not what your country can do for you - ask what you can do for your country.” Perhaps the most famous words which raised awareness and championed the cause of human freedom came from a black clergyman – Martin Luther King Jnr when he said: “I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character.” So words can have a great power. But, at a more personal and local level, words are just as important. Words said in ceremony have special power because they are said publicly. My friend Neil Dorward, has the deep conviction that one of the most important occasions in human life is when we farewell someone we love. Since the dawn of time, we humans have recognised that we must pay tribute at the time of death. Indeed, the social anthropologist actually define the transition from ape to human - to homo sapiens – as the moment he began to bury his dead with ceremony. As a celebrant with at least two thousand funerals behind me, and at least an equal number of conversations and discussions, I can ask you, the reader of this valuable little volume, is there anything that has riled you more than the wrong words said at a funeral? Have you been to a funeral when the deceased’s name was pronounced incorrectly, or their worthy deeds were not mentioned, or the eulogist got the facts wrong? Didn’t you feel sick in the stomach? Here’s the rub – a funeral is a one chance, only chance occasion. If you don’t get it right the first time, there is no second chance. That is why the professional Funeral Celebrant, one who is conscientious and responsible, is a very precious and rare being in our society. Neil Dorward is one such. Let me get one other thing straight, dear reader – and please take it in – There is no such thing as a short cut to a good funeral. No such thing. It takes hours of painstaking research and preparation, it is against the clock, it is at inconvenient times, and it must be checked – and checked super carefully. Funeral Directors, all over the western world, want funeral ceremonies to be brief and on the cheap. Not all of them, mind you – a Funeral Director who values a quality ceremony is also a rare and precious being. They exist here and there. Many want to fix a fee, and fix it hard, even if the Funeral Celebrant is up until 4 a.m. and spends twenty to thirty hours on one funeral - as he or she often does. The only fair way to pay a Funeral Celebrant is by an hourly rate. I have known hundreds of talented people to start in this important profession, only to leave feeling tired and exploited – or worse still - burned out. So be fair with your Celebrant, they need financial as well as moral support to do the job they are supposed to do. Your understanding will help Neil and his colleagues, and the people he is assisting in the Celebrancy Profession, to get the words right - important words.

Neil Dorward has just about completed his book. It will be published shortly. Dally Messenger has written this short Foreword as a taste of what is to come.

FOREWORD
BY DALLY MESSENGER III
PRINCIPAL, INTERNATIONAL COLLEGE OF CELEBRANCY

POLONIUS - What do you read, my lord?
HAMLET - Words, words, words.
(Hamlet 2.2)

Human beings mainly communicate through words, and words are important. Words - and how they are spoken, can change the course of history. George Bush Senior won a presidential election in the U.S.A. by asking three words “Where’s the beef?” Winston Churchill stirred and inspired a nation with his words: “We will fight them on the beaches … “ or his simple but ringing 1940 tribute - “Never in the field of human conflict was so much owed by so many to so few.”

John F. Kennedy has these words on his tomb – “Ask not what your country can do for you - ask what you can do for your country.” Perhaps the most famous words which raised awareness and championed the cause of human freedom came from a black clergyman – Martin Luther King Jnr when he said: “I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character.”

So words can have a great power.

But, at a more personal and local level, words are just as important. Words said in ceremony have special power because they are said publicly. My friend Neil Dorward, has the deep conviction that one of the most important occasions in human life is when we farewell someone we love. Since the dawn of time, we humans have recognised that we must pay tribute at the time of death. Indeed, the social anthropologist actually define the transition from ape to human - to homo sapiens – as the moment he began to bury his dead with ceremony.

As a celebrant with at least two thousand funerals behind me, and at least an equal number of conversations and discussions, I can ask you, the reader of this valuable little volume, is there anything that has riled you more than the wrong words said at a funeral? Have you been to a funeral when the deceased’s name was pronounced incorrectly, or their worthy deeds were not mentioned, or the eulogist got the facts wrong? Didn’t you feel sick in the stomach?

Here’s the rub – a funeral is a one chance, only chance occasion. If you don’t get it right the first time, there is no second chance. That is why the professional Funeral Celebrant, one who is conscientious and responsible, is a very precious and rare being in our society. Neil Dorward is one such.

Let me get one other thing straight, dear reader – and please take it in – There is no such thing as a short cut to a good funeral. No such thing. It takes hours of painstaking research and preparation, it is against the clock, it is at inconvenient times, and it must be checked – and checked super carefully.

Funeral Directors, all over the western world, want funeral ceremonies to be brief and on the cheap. Not all of them, mind you – a Funeral Director who values a quality ceremony is also a rare and precious being. They exist here and there. Many want to fix a fee, and fix it hard, even if the Funeral Celebrant is up until 4 a.m. and spends twenty to thirty hours on one funeral - as he or she often does.

The only fair way to pay a Funeral Celebrant is by an hourly rate. I have known hundreds of talented people to start in this important profession, only to leave feeling tired and exploited – or worse still - burned out.

So be fair with your Celebrant, they need financial as well as moral support to do the job they are supposed to do. Your understanding will help Neil and his colleagues, and the people he is assisting in the Celebrancy Profession, to get the words right - important words.