Cob: Graveyards (off topic)

[David Knapp]

We had our Beagle cremated when he passed on.  Rather than letting him turn into pet food or stuffing him under the back flower bed, we took this way out.  After we get our land to build our solar homestead, we'll make sure we find a shady hickory tree where lots of squirrels play to spread out the ashes.  Come to think about it, that's not a bad thing to ask for in my will also ...

Dave

>>> Sojourner <sojournr at missouri.org> 07/09 1:08 PM >>>
John Schinnerer wrote:
> 
> Aloha,
> 
> -----Original Message-----
> 
> >What about all these people we bury in the
> >ground that died of incurable deseases?
> 
> Hmmm, like being human?  ;-)
> Seriously, though, in populated areas one cannot typically
> just drop a body in the ground in a cheap pine box legally
> any more. 

Unfortunately.

> There has to be an approved, sealed casket with a certain
> durability, etc. etc. (I guess they figure a couple years
> of anaerobic composting will make it safe... ;-)

I think it takes considerably longer than that for all the formaldehyde
they pump in to break down.  Most of the caskets they charge you so much
for are a joke, anyway - they are not "hermetically" sealed even when
brand new, not by a long shot.

The funeral home biz is one of the biggest ripoffs, IMO, foisted off on
the public today.  Right after advertising in general.  <VBG>

My Dad finally decided on cremation because he didn't feel he could
trust the rest of my siblings NOT to agitate for a big expensive funeral
(and also knowing who would end up footing the bill - me, as usual, if
they had their way).  Like me, he feels like if you're dead you should
be encouraged to rot as quickly as possible, and today's laws governing
burial do exactly the opposite.  All that formaldehyde and all the other
junk in the caskets they drop you into the ground in are just making a
bigger, longer term problem.  So cremation seems to be the closest he
can get to an "organic" funeral, hopefully with as little uneccessary
expense as possible.

Hopefully it'll be a long time before we find out if his strategy will
work.

Holly ;-D