Saturday, September 16, 2006

When it is Time I Want a GREEN BURIAL

By Norris McDonald. Green burial, green funeral, green cemetery. Not that it matters at the time, but embalming is a gruesome process. Not to mention an autopsy and the evisceration of your eyes, brain and entrails. Hacked up like a chicken in a processing plant and formaldehyde, ethanol and methanol replacing the six quarts of blood washed down the wastewater drain. Then suited up and made up for public display in a $5,000 casket and service. And cremation isn't necessarily green.

I don't think so. I want a green burial. Wrap me up and put me in the ground as soon as possible after the official death notice has been signed. I guess we need green graveyards too. I wouldn't mind being buried in the woods somewhere but this could get unseemly if many people start doing it. Jewish religious culture has it right. A green funeral would be short, sweet and to the point, with just the closest of relatives and friends avaiable at the time. Six feet deep is fine but less is okay too. I would not mind being worm food for future fish bait. "For dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return."

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