I've always preferred the idea of cremation, and I don't really understand people who want to be buried.

For one, if you're not selfish and you care about future generations, shouldn't you NOT want to be buried because, you know, you're using up finite space? (Finite until we land on other planets anyway.) I personally don't give as much of a crap about future generations as people who go around talking about how much they do, yet they're the ones who also want to be buried and take up valuable space for eternity. Don't get it.

And for two, isn't burial way, way, waaaay creepier? Who wants their husk to lie in the ground and rot, and burst with fluids, and have things eating them? Ugh! Much better to go out quickly in a blaze, I think.

I just don't get it. I suppose maybe the reason is you want something physical to remain to be remembered for... but in that case I think I'd want my body preserved in a funny pose in some kind of non-rotting glass or something, hanging out in the center of town with a stupid look on my face perhaps, like halfway between awkwardly falling over something.

Since that isn't an option yet then yeah, a casket in the ground isn't remember-me enough, don't see the point.

I'm trying to do a search to find out if more people want to be buried or cremated, and all I'm finding is that cremation is on the rise. That's probably because it's cheap though, and the fact that they're talking about it like it's drawing even with burial means that burial is way more popular. Probably still would be, if not for the cost.

So yeah, anyone here want to be buried? Got a good reason so I can get it?

Edit:

It occurred to me, a minute after posting it, "religious reasons". I totally forgot about religion and that people have it. XD So I guess I'm looking for reasons OUTSIDE of religion, because you know... I asked it to make sense so I get it, and since I don't get religion, if you just tell me "because god sed" or something, it's not gonna help. Not to crap on anyone's religion or anything, just asking why people outside of following-religion would want burial.

I'd like to have my body used for organ donation and for science as much as possible. After that, I would like to be cremated. They started taking ashes and making them into fake coral to patch up parts of reef or something like that. That sounds pretty good. Although I am not opposed to burial IF it's one of those green burial places where you can't have your body treated with any chemicals or anything, and they just wrap you in some burlap, and plop you in a hole, then plant a tree on you. Because I think we need more green spaces anyway.

Sanssouci wrote:I'd like to have my body used for organ donation and for science as much as possible. After that, I would like to be cremated. They started taking ashes and making them into fake coral to patch up parts of reef or something like that. That sounds pretty good. Although I am not opposed to burial IF it's one of those green burial places where you can't have your body treated with any chemicals or anything, and they just wrap you in some burlap, and plop you in a hole, then plant a tree on you. Because I think we need more green spaces anyway.

I never heard of that coral thing, crazy! That sounds fun, being part of something fish can live in... or hide in... or whatever it is fish use coral for, I dunno, maybe they don't.

Moi wrote:

I don't think it's like this everywhere, but my grandparents are buried in a place that won't let you have anything besides flowers on the grave.
We were putting wind chimes in the trees and stuff on their graves and the people at the cemetery took them and threw them out and told us we're not to do that.

1. WE bought THAT land.
2. My family is buried there.
3. My grandpa planted THAT tree and their corpses have fed THAT tree.
4. You know how shitty it is to take stuff off someone's grave and throw it in the garbage?

Okay that is insane and absolutely not okay. :/ At the very least they should keep it and give it back when they scold you, but really who cares! You want to decorate a freakin' area that you pay for, I can't even really believe that, really.

Moi wrote:

My dad does NOT want to be buried. Since he was a little boy, he had recurring dreams of being buried alive. He's terrified of being buried and has strictly told me to cremate him.
He also wants me to find a way to plant his ashes with a tree and grow it so I can remember him.

Oh me too. There's always the (remote remote, very remote I know) possibility that we're just like... stuck in our bodies for eternity, who knows! Then you're just in there, rotting, ew.

Of course the alternative is being burned alive in a casket like in "Scrooged" (horrifying scene), but at least it's over quickly!

Moi wrote:

On a side note - there's so many ways to treat a loved one's ashes.
I remember hearing about a woman putting her daughter's ashes in a stuffed bear.
People were saying that was creepy and wrong but I thought it was sweet.
Like I said - my dad wants me to use a capsule and plant him with a tree so his ashes feed the tree.
I'll try to do that, but if that tree dies - it'll destroy me xD

Have you seen now they'll make diamonds and other gems out of your loved one's ashes? Then you can wear them in jewelry, that's probably my favorite idea. Just keeping an urn with ashes in it is a little creepy to me, but putting it in pretty jewelry?

For example.

They use the carbon in the body to make diamonds, it's craaaazy! (Pricey too but then I guess much cheaper than a burial or casket...)

You should order that your family turn you into shiny pretty things instead of going in a family plot. PUT YOUR FOOT DOWN, DEMAND TO BE SHINY AND PRETTY FOREVER.

I can understand places having rules. But I think it's really mean to throw things away. Some people don't put just anything on a grave. Some people put things with great sentimental value there. So I think they should keep the things and contact the family to at least give them back. I know it would mean a lot more work for them, but I think they should do it anyway.

My neighbor puts ashes into glass. I didn't have any ashes, so I asked him about hair. He said he can burn it, then put those ashes into glass. So I brought him a cutting from all my dogs and a cutting from all my cats, and then he made me a glass pendant with all the dog hair and a glass pendant with all the cat hair.

I don't much care what happens to my body after I'm dead because I certainly won't know anything about it. I'm torn on options though. Cremation uses a LOT of natural gas. I suppose I would go for Natural Burial, where the body is simply wrapped in a sheet or something and put in the ground, no embalming. That way not only do I release all my nutrients back into the soil, the land is then protected from development because human remains and can become plant and animal sanctuary.

Sanssouci wrote:My neighbor puts ashes into glass. I didn't have any ashes, so I asked him about hair. He said he can burn it, then put those ashes into glass. So I brought him a cutting from all my dogs and a cutting from all my cats, and then he made me a glass pendant with all the dog hair and a glass pendant with all the cat hair.

That's nice, I like that.

My cats fight, so their hair would probably fight in the glass...

Batcheva wrote:I suppose I would go for Natural Burial, where the body is simply wrapped in a sheet or something and put in the ground, no embalming. That way not only do I release all my nutrients back into the soil, the land is then protected from development because human remains and can become plant and animal sanctuary.

Oh crap, that's something I forgot to mention in the original post, embalming! Embalming is insaaaaane! You want your body to last there in the ground, all creepy and non-rotting? That's, like, as creepy as rotting! Also putting toxic crap into the earth just so you can look nicer in your grave where no one sees you, super. XP

I read something once that people are rotting slower without embalming due to all the preservatives in the food. <.<

Huh.

I tend to think of burial as better for future generations, because of land use; which is the opposite of what you were saying.
It's because, when I go to big populated cities, often everything is gray and concrete and awful, except here and there some cemeteries are the only spaces left with growing things and serenity and peace. Sometimes cities dig up old cemeteries and move them anyhow, but it takes more pressure before they do, so at least for a little bit longer the people who live there get a small bit of a haven.

I like spending time in cemeteries; it is quiet, and people are more respectful of strangers in a cemetery, and there are actual growing things and birds in cemeteries even when you're in the middle of a city.


I don't much like cities, though, so maybe that's just me.


Anyhow, so I want to be buried. Don't burn things and put more smoke pollution into the air on account of me; bury me without embalming, just in wood, so that I dissolve back into nothingness and a nice bit of land is kept in greenery for as long as possible....
Fortunately I have a nice religious reason/excuse to avoid embalming and be buried in wood (without preservatives) so that's handy.


But I do like the peaceful contemplative nature of cemeteries, for themselves.

Interesting. Although the same could be accomplished with parks, without the risk of ghosts.

Some places like New York have rules that for every mile they develop they have to set aside something for nature, hence Central Park. I don't know if that's everywhere in the United States or just New York though.

I'm with you on nature. I do enjoy cities because I like lots of lights and big buildings with high roofs you can get up on and trains and human invention, but I don't like people so uh... there's the problem with cities right there. If only they'd just build 'em and then leave! XD

Pretty sure that's a local ruling!

You know, I never much worried about ghosts in cemeteries. It seems like if I were a ghost, there's so many cool things to go and see and do. I would want to check out a coral reef and explore deep ocean trenches where the continental plates are pulling apart. I would want to get close to a volcano, since I'd already be dead and couldn't get killed by the fumes. I would want to visit restricted libraries, and audit classes I can't afford to take.
I feel like the only ghosts who would hang around in a cemetery either has no imagination, in which case it's hard to be scared of them, or they're tired and introverted and want the peace themselves, in which case it's hard to be scared of them.
>.<
There have definitely been cemetery areas that seem like there's more of a presence than could be easily accounted for (I mean that I have personally felt), but it never felt unfriendly, so I never worried about it.

An abandoned city would be fun to explore, yeah. I still wouldn't want to live there, though, even without the people. I like my balance of civilization/nature to fall more heavily in favor of nature. ;)

That said, I consider farmed land civilized too, and most parks/cemeteries as well. I have to go to the nature preserves and national parks to really relax much.
Just... civilized greenery is better than civilized concrete.

Still, you have a point that humans have created some amazing things!
Trains and whole sidewalks which are one long cobblestone mural and some really impressive bridges (we need more bridges, they're amazing. If we have to have those tall buildings anyhow in cities, why can't we have bridge walkways between them every twenty floors or so?)


My mother wants to be cremated. She says if her spirit is stuck where her body is, then with cremation we can scatter bits of her ashes all over some neat spots. My father, on the other hand, wants to be buried for no better reason than "if you're buried you get a headstone. And if you get a headstone, you can put something funny on it. If it's funny enough, you can be more famous after you're dead than while you were alive, and that's even funnier. And if you're dead, you need something funny to cheer you up. You can't eat ice cream when you're dead." At least, that's what he said a few years ago when he was fighting cancer. I'm still not sure how serious he was.