Some random thoughts on a Tuesday morning...
- When the weather turns cold in the motor-city, the first thing I think about are my friends living on the streets and in the shelters of Detroit and Cass Park. I'm grateful for a roof, warm bed, and fridge full of food.
- Patriots Head Coach, Bill Belichick, gets the "the pot calling the kettle black" award for the week. Unreal. This guy has some nerve.
- If you died tomorrow, would you want to be cremated or buried? Do you think there's anything wrong with cremation? FYI: Did you know that in the State of Michigan, it's estimated that nearly 40 percent of all people are now requesting cremation? That's up significantly--fifteen years ago, the percentage of cremation requesters was somewhere around twelve or fifteen percent.
13 comments:
I've always wanted to be creamated. Sort of romantic-like with a boat and flaming arrows being aimed at me... but the regular pine-box method will do just as well. There's just something about returning to dust that appeals to me more than taking up cemetary space and decomposing. Have you seen the recent pictures of King Tut?
PS, isn't creamation cheaper? That could be a major factor, too.
I've seen pictures of King Tut--it ain't pretty.
I think cremation is much cheaper. It also is more impressive for God to bring people back to life from dust.
Weird thought.
I am still leaning toward the conventional "burial" approach.
I have always believed that to bury the dead is a waste of a good piece of land and the funeral and burial costs could develop that land for housing for the poor and homeless.
I am going the route of scientific donation which ends with cremation. I will be done with the flesh God gave me so someone else might as well benefit from it. The only cost is getting my body to the institution I have donated myself to and in some cases the institution pays that cost.
Some think that is gross, cheating your family of a final resting place, or they are uncomfortable with being a specimen. I figure I won't be around to be uncomfortable, my family should remember me where we spent time together not where I am decomposing, and a lot of good comes from research using real cadavers (medically, scientifically, and forensically).
Easy answer. Buried.
Keeps my posthumous modelling career alive to offset funeral costs.
Luke
Another weird thought: I have plans to donate organs and stuff if I should die and they are usable. If, say, I donate my eyes to someone who is not saved, and then my "body" is ressurected, what happens to the poor guy who gets me eyes? Will they suddenly pop out of his head and dissapear? Or if I donated my heart, and then the guy who gets my heart isn't saved, and then *POOF*! it's gone and he dies. Does that make me a murderer?!?
Cremated, or course! Its so much less expensive. I don't want the renting of the casket or embalming for the funeral service either. If Michigan allowed for simple burials in a true pine box on someone's property then I may dig being buried. However, since we really don't own our property, but just rent it at the convenience of the government...okay, I need to stop getting fired up over my random property rights tangent.
Bring on the glorified body, baby!
I remember cremating my boyhood dog, fuzzy, in a giant bonfire. Its more difficult than the movies make it look! I'm sorry but Luke Skywalker would've had to use a lot more wood. (clarification: fuzzy was already dead when the cremation began)
Luke: good call--just like a man, you make decisions based on economic responsibility.
Cassandra: Your humor abounds as you write from Britain! That was hilarious. I'm going to quote you on that real soon. I'll give you credit. In case you were being serious: I think the God who cut the grand canyon, and created the water falls of Ocho Rios can figure out the details.
Eric--what's the statue of limitations law in Michigan regarding animal cruelty. I want an investigation!
I'm still waiting to hear from someone who disagrees with cremation.
Easy answer for me--burial. I want a grave and tombstone. I want to be next to my wife. I want her next to me.
An argument against creamation--the resurrection of the dead. What if there is a literal resurrection? If so, God is going to have to perform a miracle to get some of you back into form. :) (Just an argument, not where I am)
Josh--does that mean you think you'll know your spouse on the day of the ressurection?
Kara and I have had this conversation several times...hmmm.
I sure hope so! Honestly, I can't imagine life or heaven without her.
What do you and Kara think?
I'll admit, the idea of cremation has always kind of weirded me out. I'm not sure why. Having said that, I don't really care what happens to my body when I'm gone. I won't be here to care about it then, so I don't see much point in worrying about it now. My only concern is making things as easy as possible for my family.
Josh: Let's have this discussion over email, I don't want to get too theological on people, I have a reputation to uphold.
BTW--the discussion is a very very interesting one, because it is linked to what one's understanding of heaven will be (bodies, but with gender???)
There I go...
Crazy Saint--I think cremation is strange because it is unknown.
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