September 13, 2013

"Ethical wills can take various forms — a simple letter, a hardbound book, even a musical composition."

"Often, they include a historical narrative, a sense of the writer's place in the generations of a family; the writer's experiences and wisdom gained; and their hopes for the future."
"It can be a great tool for helping define oneself to the next generation — what's important to me, what I stood for," said Eric Weiner, a Mequon marriage and family therapist and author of "Words from the Heart: A Practical Guide to Writing an Ethical Will."


Mequon is the name of a place in Wisconsin, not a religion. The religion under discussion is Judaism. (Yom Kippur begins today.)
While some will inevitably use the process to nurture a grudge from the grave, Weiner said, he encourages writers to be positive. An ethical will, written and timed well, can start a family conversation and defuse some of the animosity that surrounds decisions about money and business succession.

"It's possible, when one writes this, to bring some healing to a relationship that would benefit from that," he said. 

4 comments:

MadisonMan said...

I wonder what people would have made of Mequon had you not clarified its meaning.

For you out-of-staters, the accent is on the first syllable: Meck-waan.

Strelnikov said...

I've been a Mequonist for several decades now. We meet the first Tuesday of every month at the gas station on the NE corner of W. Mequon Rd and Co. H'way W. See you there.

cassandra lite said...

Yom Kippur begins tonight, at sunset, as do all Jewish holidays. (There was dark before there was light.)

NotWhoIUsedtoBe said...

The link didn't work so I found the article by googling.

Here it is.