Every now and then I read a story about some one's dead relative's grave being vandalized, or desecrated, or whatever. Inevitably words like 'tragedy', 'unthinkable', 'traumatic', and various other apocalyptic adjectives get bandied about. Now, I can understand being upset, angry, even outraged, but traumatized? Why do people put so much importance on corpses? I remember when I was but a pup my mom would take my brother and me to visit my great-grandmother's grave. I never even realized that the big stone had anything to do with Granny Lee. I remember looking out at the mountains and wondering if that's where she was supposed to be. The grave itself never registered as significant to me. My father's ashes are somewhere in Massachusetts, I think, but to go visit them is in no way appealing to me. And yet I recall a tale told to my by a friend who had spent some time as a grave digger. It seems a family with more money than brains decided that, after a year in the ground, Uncle needed a new coffin. The cemetery staff had to disinter the poor sod and dump his reeking bones into the new box. They had to burn their clothes after this totally pointless exercise. Can any of you explain this bizarre infatuation people have with the dead? To me a corpse is a corpse. When I die I really couldn't care less what happens to my body. I would hope that my wife goes for the least expensive disposal option so she can enjoy most of the insurance money.
So what do you think? Am I way off base here? Is there really a good reason to spend thousands on maintenance for the dead? Oh, and one other thing that occurred to me, burial plots are becoming scarcer and scarcer as land vanishes under shopping malls and condos, so why not start burying people vertically? Couldn't you just imagine Happy Acres Filing Cabinet Cemetery?
hee hee
Yup, Halloween is fast approaching.
Marius the Macabre
4 comments:
I see that some people do need this for whatever comfort it brings them. I believe the spirit is eternal & will return again, the body is just a vehicle. Even more perplexing to me are the memorials at "death" sites. You've seen them on the side of a road where there's been an accident. Do they really believe their loved ones soul is going to hang around there for eternity? How sad. It's cremation for me & I could care less what happens to the ashes, just as I don't care what happened to all of the cars I've had in the past.
Mr. Monkey and I have both agreed- cremations, no headstones. The person who dies first has the job of spreading the other one's ashes at favortie locations. For a variety of reasons, it is almost certain that I will die first, barring some accident. This way Mr. Monkey can have an awesome globe-trotting vacation post Monkey.
I rather visit people while they're alive than visit a grave and pretend that I care. I did visit my father's grave for some reason, felt the need to, but never really questioned why. We have my MIL's ashes at the moment, and to me that is not her, that's only what's left of her physical body.
As for post-mortem we think the best way to dispose of our bodies to give the most back to the earth (read compost!), and to be honest, I'll be dead so... I don't think I'll care that much!
Yup! Cremation for me too. And for the whole family, I believe. I do believe the soul lives on but it won't be using this particular body on its next go-round here on earth (oh yes, tremble! I WILL be back!).
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