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起居室里一个普通的家庭娱乐中心，或者静静地站在卧室角落的多层储物柜，看起来再普通不过了。但如果有人告诉你那其实是一副棺材，你还会淡定自若吗？其实那几块木板并非命中注定要做成某种特定家具，说到底，是我们自己心里有道过不去的坎儿。
We’re talking about reckoning with death， and people have different ways of doing that. In Waterville， Maine， Chuck Lakin builds coffins that double as pieces of furniture.
Chuck： So， kinda the coffin collection here. This is just the plain pine box. There’s the， the 1）toe pincher coffin. Actually I think the first coffin was sort of a 2）gimmick， I woke up in the middle of the night， the idea came to me for one： you can stand this coffin up with five shelves in it， it’s a display cabinet. You can put it on its side， and the first， third， and fifth shelves turn 90 degrees so you can use it as an entertainment center， and when you turn it on its back， the five shelves become the lid.
One of my friends has one of those in her living room and she just loves having new friends over for dinner， because at some 3）lull in the conversation during the evening she’ll drop in the fact that that’s her coffin over in the corner just to see what happens， and you know it always starts a conversation—after the initial shock of course. It’s a different topic that people don’t talk about， but they discover that they have something to say usually or they have something they need to say.
This is the bookcase coffin， back here you can see the handles 4）bolted on one side. There’s only a couple of people that…that I know who have one of my coffins that’s being used as a piece of furniture， and one of them’s right here in town who bought a coffin， one that you can store flat and assemble it just in a couple of minutes with， using just 5）wedges， but she had me put three shelves in it. She uses it as a quilt storage rack. She had it in her bedroom until her husband made her take it out of the bedroom because it was 6）creeping him out， but she gets a kick out of it.
One coffin I shipped to a woman in Iowa， she just mentioned that it was a birthday present to herself and so I had tried to time it so that it arrived the day before her birthday.
I think， if you’re unprepared and had been ignoring it， most death is a tragedy. It’s treated like a tragedy， when it’s a natural process. I know I’m there intellectually and I have no idea how I’ll…I will respond emotionally when the time actually comes， but I think I want to get to the point where I can treat my death as an adventure. 我们正在讨论如何面对死亡。在这个问题上，不同的人有不同的方法。而在美国缅因州的沃特维尔，查克·莱金的做法是制作可作家具使用的棺材。
查克：好，这些差不多可以说是棺材大杂烩。这个是普通的松木棺材，那是一个宽肩窄脚的棺材。事实上，我觉得我做的第一个棺材可以说是一种噱头。我半夜醒来，冒出一个想法：你可以把里面有五层架子的棺材竖起来，那它就成了一个展示橱柜。你也可以将它侧着放，把里面的第一、三、五层的架子旋转90度，这样你就可以把它当成家庭娱乐中心。如果你把它背朝天地平放在地上，里面的五个架子就变成了棺材盖。
我有个朋友把这样一副棺材放在她家的起居室里。她很喜欢邀请新朋友到家里吃晚饭，因为在晚上谈话的间隙，她会提到起居室角落的柜子其实是她的棺材，然后看看大家会有什么反应。你也明白，这事儿肯定会引发一轮谈话——当然，这是在经历了一开始的震惊之后的事了。那是一个不同寻常且避之不及的话题，可人们会发现在这个问题上，自己通常有话可说，或者有话要说。
这是一个书架棺材，从后面这里你可以看到它的一边上了把手。据我所知，只有几个人把我做的棺材用作家具，其中一人就在本地。她买的那个棺材可以放平储存，又可以在几分钟内用楔子组装起来。不过，她让我在里面加了三层架子，用它来放置被褥。她把这个被褥架棺材放在卧室里。后来，她丈夫强迫她把棺材搬出卧室，因为他被这玩意儿搞得毛骨悚然，而她却从中得到了极大的乐趣。
我给住在艾奥瓦州的一名女顾客寄了一副棺材。她下订单时提到那是她给自己的生日礼物，所以我尽力控制好时间，让棺材在她生日的前一天到达。
我认为，如果一个人对死亡没有准备，一直都忽视它，那么大多数死亡都会成为悲剧，它也就会被看成是悲剧，但其实它只是一个自然而然的过程。我觉得自己在理智上可以正视死亡，但当那个时刻真的到来，我不知道自己在情感上会有何反应，不过我想，我希望可以达到一种境界——把自己的死看成是一次冒险。
起居室里一个普通的家庭娱乐中心，或者静静地站在卧室角落的多层储物柜，看起来再普通不过了。但如果有人告诉你那其实是一副棺材，你还会淡定自若吗？其实那几块木板并非命中注定要做成某种特定家具，说到底，是我们自己心里有道过不去的坎儿。
We’re talking about reckoning with death， and people have different ways of doing that. In Waterville， Maine， Chuck Lakin builds coffins that double as pieces of furniture.
Chuck： So， kinda the coffin collection here. This is just the plain pine box. There’s the， the 1）toe pincher coffin. Actually I think the first coffin was sort of a 2）gimmick， I woke up in the middle of the night， the idea came to me for one： you can stand this coffin up with five shelves in it， it’s a display cabinet. You can put it on its side， and the first， third， and fifth shelves turn 90 degrees so you can use it as an entertainment center， and when you turn it on its back， the five shelves become the lid.
One of my friends has one of those in her living room and she just loves having new friends over for dinner， because at some 3）lull in the conversation during the evening she’ll drop in the fact that that’s her coffin over in the corner just to see what happens， and you know it always starts a conversation—after the initial shock of course. It’s a different topic that people don’t talk about， but they discover that they have something to say usually or they have something they need to say.
This is the bookcase coffin， back here you can see the handles 4）bolted on one side. There’s only a couple of people that…that I know who have one of my coffins that’s being used as a piece of furniture， and one of them’s right here in town who bought a coffin， one that you can store flat and assemble it just in a couple of minutes with， using just 5）wedges， but she had me put three shelves in it. She uses it as a quilt storage rack. She had it in her bedroom until her husband made her take it out of the bedroom because it was 6）creeping him out， but she gets a kick out of it.
One coffin I shipped to a woman in Iowa， she just mentioned that it was a birthday present to herself and so I had tried to time it so that it arrived the day before her birthday.
I think， if you’re unprepared and had been ignoring it， most death is a tragedy. It’s treated like a tragedy， when it’s a natural process. I know I’m there intellectually and I have no idea how I’ll…I will respond emotionally when the time actually comes， but I think I want to get to the point where I can treat my death as an adventure. 我们正在讨论如何面对死亡。在这个问题上，不同的人有不同的方法。而在美国缅因州的沃特维尔，查克·莱金的做法是制作可作家具使用的棺材。
查克：好，这些差不多可以说是棺材大杂烩。这个是普通的松木棺材，那是一个宽肩窄脚的棺材。事实上，我觉得我做的第一个棺材可以说是一种噱头。我半夜醒来，冒出一个想法：你可以把里面有五层架子的棺材竖起来，那它就成了一个展示橱柜。你也可以将它侧着放，把里面的第一、三、五层的架子旋转90度，这样你就可以把它当成家庭娱乐中心。如果你把它背朝天地平放在地上，里面的五个架子就变成了棺材盖。
我有个朋友把这样一副棺材放在她家的起居室里。她很喜欢邀请新朋友到家里吃晚饭，因为在晚上谈话的间隙，她会提到起居室角落的柜子其实是她的棺材，然后看看大家会有什么反应。你也明白，这事儿肯定会引发一轮谈话——当然，这是在经历了一开始的震惊之后的事了。那是一个不同寻常且避之不及的话题，可人们会发现在这个问题上，自己通常有话可说，或者有话要说。
这是一个书架棺材，从后面这里你可以看到它的一边上了把手。据我所知，只有几个人把我做的棺材用作家具，其中一人就在本地。她买的那个棺材可以放平储存，又可以在几分钟内用楔子组装起来。不过，她让我在里面加了三层架子，用它来放置被褥。她把这个被褥架棺材放在卧室里。后来，她丈夫强迫她把棺材搬出卧室，因为他被这玩意儿搞得毛骨悚然，而她却从中得到了极大的乐趣。
我给住在艾奥瓦州的一名女顾客寄了一副棺材。她下订单时提到那是她给自己的生日礼物，所以我尽力控制好时间，让棺材在她生日的前一天到达。
我认为，如果一个人对死亡没有准备，一直都忽视它，那么大多数死亡都会成为悲剧，它也就会被看成是悲剧，但其实它只是一个自然而然的过程。我觉得自己在理智上可以正视死亡，但当那个时刻真的到来，我不知道自己在情感上会有何反应，不过我想，我希望可以达到一种境界——把自己的死看成是一次冒险。