Green Burial

In the mail came an advertisment for a mortuary.

It included a business reply card listing, with a check box next to each one, the various services they offer.

I didn't see what I wanted so I wrote-in, "Green Burial", and added a check next to it.

I'll mail it tomorrow.

I've been thinking creamation for myself, because I'd rather not be embalmed and put in a vault, casket, and all sorts of other expensive useless accessories to separate me from the natural process of decomp. I know it sounds morbid, but I'd rather be creamated, than to rot in a smelly casket. Just in case...

A sheet wrapped around you. A pile of dirt, a pile of your friends, and nothing to mark the spot except a tree nearby, etc.

aren't the laws set up against that in most states?

I read, too, that cremation is an air pollution source.

with all that greasy smoke. And, it adds to gobal warming-- it's still a fire, but it produces no heat, energy, or anything else we can use.

the gold-trimmed mahogany coffin, embalming, and some of the other stuff, but a cheap pine box is reasonably eco-friendly, and might be required by law. And, it looks better to the family than just dumping a bag into the ground.

I'm not sure what's so un-green about a simple headstone.

But a headstone?

If I haven't left a mark, that's not a good place to put one.

Plus hikers could trip on it.

It was published years ago, but it's timeless and an eye-opener. It's an expose' of the scurrilous practices of the funeral industry.

Cremation for me.

I'm trying to talk my wife into it, though she's dubious about the idea and is leaning towards cremation.

I think the perfect end for me would be to end up as slide samples, anatomy class dissection tool or classroom skeleton.

Of course, I might not be a safe skeleton since I was born during the age of atmospheric nuclear testing and thus almost certainly have - gasp - more radioactive strontium-90 in my bones than the average Joe.

But it's not my decision about what to do with my carcass: it's my wife's and kids. I will have no opinion on the matter since I will not exist.

I am very fortunate inasmuch as I have a reasonable expectation of having all three of them as my survivors, since I'm the oldest of the bunch. Whatever turns them on is fine with me.

enforceable.