proper funeral behavior

[lauradi7dw]

I didn't watch 41's funeral, aside from the last fifteen minutes, when I turned it on in hopes of hearing the bells (which started at 1:20, once all the other music was done). There has been a lot made of the fact that Trump sat there with arms folded, looked irritated rather than attentive for part of the service, and didn't recite the creed. I think Trump is a terrible president, possibly worse than George I, (don't get me started on the hagiography of the past couple of weeks), but I think he did an OK job as a funeral attendee. He claims to be a Christian, but I don't think anybody really believes it. Possibly staying silent during the creed was a principled action. I am glad nobody films me during such services - I fidget a lot in church, take notes on the order of service, flip through the hymn book, etc. The fact that he was sitting next to a row of church-goers (in chronological order by presidency, I noticed) just amplified his lack of experience in that regard, but that's fine - we really are not a Christian nation, despite what a lot of people want.
I was glad to watch the highly trained multi-service pallbearers do their thing. I had not realized that they have someone giving them orders, sometimes step by step - as they were walking down the steps from the door to the hearse, it was very carefully done. If I had to help carry a coffin down steps, I'd probably trip and pull everybody else down with me. I was thinking that those guys (they were all guys) would be great at moving furniture.

The whole half-muffled quarter peal after the service is here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ecZvU6wvTQA