In the 1970s and ’80s, British brothers Lorne and Lawrence Blair chronicled their journeys in Borneo and the Spice Islands in the dazzling and memorable documentary, “Ring of Fire.”
The jovial, monocle-wearing Lawrence led the adventures, accompanied by his lanky, handsome brother, Lorne. I watched a re-issue of the documentary on public television in the ’90s. So much of it has stayed with me, including the epilogue, which begins with Lawrence’s early death after breaking a leg. Here, Lorne describes how the family prepared Lawrence’s body to be “dissolved by the sea he so loved”…”there’s none of this morbid intoning from the pulpit ‘dust to dust, ashes to ashes,’ there they are. You’re not saved from it. You have to touch it. So in a way it’s purifying, actually. You know by the end of it… they’re gone.” (story begins around 4:00):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jJJPmt2qD7s
