One of my favorite topics discussed so far in this class is the one we had Wednesday night about "Beau Geste". A Beau Geste is a private ritual of grief that is performed when someone dear dies. A Beau Geste can be putting a baby blanket in a child's casket so that the child won't be afraid or feel alone, or maybe disposing something near the gravesite, or even sending out to sea an object that has meaning between you and the person who died.

I have been truly fortunate in my life and have not had to deal too much with death, but it is one of my deepest darkest fears that someone close to me is going to die. I know that I would have to take my mourning further than the funeral. People use Beau Geste to prolong mourning and to keep a connection with the person deceased.

I think Beau Geste is related to folklore because there is a folkgroup involved even though one person is alive and the other has passed. The experience has intense meaning for the person performing.

I wonder how knowing about Beau Geste will effect me if the day comes that I will need it?