That was a fun conversation for me. Let's just say that the woman was not blessed. Whatever I may have said, it effectively kept the entire funeral services industry away from me for the past six years.
Until yesterday.
The day before my 36th birthday, there were several items in the mail -- birthday cards from Mom and Dad, a few friends, the church, my investment broker. And there was another card that I assumed to be like the one from the broker -- a courteous gesture from a business to a valued client.
I was wrong. It was an ad for cremation services.
- With society as mobile as it is today, why spend money on a piece of land that may not be convenient to all of my loved ones?
- Why not choose to have a meaningful ceremony where loved ones can gather to disperse my remains over a cherished location?
- And why not help the environment by turning the tide against cemeteries that often have to remove much-needed trees, thus having a negative impact on the environment?
(So that's what Al Gore has been up to these days!)
I wonder if a group of marketing geniuses -- scratch that -- a group of marketing $%@&#s sat around a table somewhere and said, "Hey, people think about their death around their birthday, right? Let's get 'em while they're down!"
That just ain't right.
So, if you were to die tonight, do you want to be buried or cremated? And where would you want to be placed or dispersed? Before you think (or worse, before you reply) that this is an irrelevent question for Christians to consider because our bodies are just vehicles, don't worry -- I get that. But the fact is, either you or your family members will one day be asked what to do with your vehicle. So just for grins, what's your preference? Where do you want to park your vehicle?
(Keep in mind that in the case of your untimely death and the lack of a will, your comments may or may not be admissable in court proceedings!)
4 comments:
As befits a Scottish lass I am heading to heaven and leaving my body in the cemetery my great-great-grandfather created. Free parking!
I recently had a conversation about this with my co-workers and one of them told me that you can't legally just go spread someone's ashes somewhere . . . or at least don't get caught doing it! I don't know if I care - I kind of think it's up to what my family could handle and would want. We've always been a "burying" family though, so that's definitely what I'm more used to.
Once all my organs are donated, I really don't care. I considered Carissa's comment about family history, but it didn't really help me... we're definitely "buriers" but in several cases, that has meant burying the ashes post-cremation. Maybe since that takes up a smaller plot, we could suggest it as a compromise for the tree-huggers?
Is it buriers or buryers? Neither seems right to me. Maybe it's because I made up the word...
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