When you've got to go. You've got to go
By p1kef1sh
@p1kef1sh (45681)
November 5, 2008 3:17am CST
Today is the third anniversary of the death of my Father in Law. He died slowly but without pain from lung cancer. We buried him in the local Roman Catholic cemetery where he lived and eight months later to the day, his wife joined him there.
Now when my time comes - and I don't have a date as yet! - I have always wanted to be cremated. However, a couple of months ago I drove past a Woodland burial site. I turned around and went in as I had never been in one before. The contrast between the traditional cemetery and this place was huge. Here graves, mostly untended but the more natural looking for that, lay surrounded by trees and nature. In the traditional cemetery it is just a sea of gravestones as far as the eye can see almost. So I am currently thinking of heading to the woods. I have also discovered that if I am cremated that not only will I pump about 50kgs CO2 into the atmosphere, but that the mercury fillings in my teeth will contribute to the 15% of all mercury pollution in the atmosphere that comes from cremation alone! Maybe I should have a simple cardboard coffin and a shady nook under a tree.
Would you consider a woodland burial?
11 people like this
16 responses
@moonlitmagikchild (22181)
• United States
5 Nov 08
i will still be cremated just because i dont want to take up room on the earth.. unless you are stacked on top of one another like in new orleans or something if we buried and honored every grave the world would be nothing but.. then where the hell would we live??
2 people like this
@moonlitmagikchild (22181)
• United States
5 Nov 08
right but as long as you have record or a marker saying "i am here" where your buried no one can do anything with the land so it might as well never go away.. if i am to be buried i would do like new orleans where they just have the thingies they put you in above ground like a Moslem's.. i know one cemetery worker said they wait a year and sweep out the debris/ashes and bury it later..
2 people like this
@nannacroc (4049)
•
5 Nov 08
Yes I saw one of these described on tv not long ago and thought that would be the ideal way to be buried. In the one I saw they also planted a tree near to where the person was buried. The problem is that I have always had a fear of being buried alive.
@p1kef1sh (45681)
•
5 Nov 08
Now don't worry because I will be there too. We can't be buried separately. I'll make sure that you've gone if you'll do the same for me. Reminds me of the man who was frightened of dying and insisted that he be buried with his mobile phone. That is what happened. A friend said that he couldn't remember whether they had switched it on or not. So he rang it. "Thats' a nuisance" he said. "It's engaged"!
2 people like this
@quarvalsharess (989)
• Malaysia
5 Nov 08
wow.. omg.. i didn't think of that.. I too, want to be cremated when I die. It's not because of cemeteries, it's just that I thought it's much better, I save the world space.. That's what I thought.. hmm.. but now, if I pollute the earth by being cremated, I doubt I want to do so..
Now that I may decide to get buried since I'll pollute the air even more, I would need to start saving up to get my husband and I a lot for burial.. Now that would be quite costly..
Another thing to add to the things to do.. and things to save... as thought the economy is getting any better.. with inflation and all.. hmm.. I'll have to think about burial rather than being cremated..
We'll see..
But thank you very much for giving valuable information regarding such an important issue.. :)
Have a great day and take care!
@dragon54u (31634)
• United States
5 Nov 08
I would consider that, yes. My main objection to traditional burial is that they keep the body from nourishing the soil. They render the body useless and prevent its fulfilling its last purpose. You should see about a plot there soon, you never know when your time will come.
2 people like this
@p1kef1sh (45681)
•
5 Nov 08
The other issue is that they don't grow anything in cemeteries either. We have thousands of old grave sites in the UK, mostly in churchyards which do nothing. Very useful if, like me, you are interested in family history, but of no practical value. I shall think about it. Thank you for your encouraging words!! You are right of course, you never do know.
2 people like this
@MsTickle (25180)
• Australia
7 Nov 08
There's some interesting information there...thanks Pikey...I was all for cremation but the pollution aspect needs to be considered. A lot of the burial sites seem to be filled though...the ones in Sydney are vast and full to overflowing with no more areas to be dug up other than to put someone in on top of someone else. A family mausoleum is a good idea with many shelves.
I really like the idea of a cardboard box and a tree planted on top of me....I wonder is that legal? The cardboard box, I mean...paying all that money for a fancy schmancy casket just to burn it or bury it, is ludicrous in my eyes.
@laydee (12798)
• Philippines
6 Nov 08
I'd prefer the woodland too. It's simply a matter of convenience for those who are left behind, but when someone is buried (unlike cremated) there's somehow a sense of family over the years.
I could remember that every November 2, my family and relatives would have a picnic or a camp-out at our cemeteries where our ancestors were buried, it's a fun time to get together. Even though relatives now-a-days are living in far lands, they'd come over just to 'bond' with other families. It's a good tradition to continue.
In contrast, cremated bodies may be convenient to those left behind, but the convenience has more often than not, lead to neglect and forgotten pasts. Yes there are places were the urn may be placed but nothing beats the site of nature and sitting down together sharing stories of how the deceased is remembered.
Yeah, I'd prefer the woodland, all soil and coffin for me. I'd just hope there would be soil left for me though, it seems that the prices for these are skyrocketing so fast.
1 person likes this
@p1kef1sh (45681)
•
6 Nov 08
I love the idea of a woodland burial, but I also want to be cremated. I can't be both though although I could have my ashes interred. But why bother with that? I don't especially want to be remembered forever, I know that my family will and that's enough.
1 person likes this
@cinderella2007 (2662)
•
6 Nov 08
Ive not really planned where I would like to be buried or if I even want to be buried, I'm not sure I would like to cremated though!!
I think grave yards/cemeteries aren't really looked after and its a shame that people do destroy grave stones and such. I dont think many of us think about the effect we have with the atmosphere.
I think a woodland burial would be nice and peaceful and to be surrounded by nature would be nice!!
@cinderella2007 (2662)
•
6 Nov 08
I hope that I am a long way off too p1key. A woodland burial would be nice, comforting for when the family visit and they can come and lay flowers and discuss how daft you were!!
@guybrush (4658)
• Australia
12 Nov 08
I definitely like the idea of a cardboard coffin. It offends me to think my family would pay for a beautiful wooden casket which was just going to be buried. I'd rather they used the money to have a nice holiday and remember me. The woodland thing sounds wonderful - I'd really like that. Cremation worries me, because I've been petrified of fire all my life, and pictures of the ovens at Auchwitz will haunt me forever.
@p1kef1sh (45681)
•
12 Nov 08
I understand the fear of fire thing, but I have always wanted to be cremated as I think that it is the cleanest way. However, I am very taken by the idea of a woodland burial and just love the idea of a cardboard coffin. People pay so much money for something that only gets looked at for about a week before being lost from view forever. I just read a story called "The boy in the Striped Pyjamas" about an unlikely friendship between the son of the commandant of Auchwitz and a Polish Jewish boy the same age who is a prisoner. There's a film too, but that's not faithful to the book apparently.
@p1kef1sh (45681)
•
12 Nov 08
It does make you wonder and we don't learn either. I sometimes think that we are never happier than when we are at war. The build up: "of course we are hoping that even now diplomatic negotiations will succeed". Opening of hostilities: "Today coalition forced struck their first blow against X's most potent military symbol (a hospital)". Whoops" "Unfortunately in operations some collateral damage does occur. We work hard to ensure that such things are minimised". A nation mourns: "Today the 200th soldier was killed in (insert far flung country whose people didn't know that they were threatening us and who we always thought were in a different part of the world entirely!)". So it continues........ Cynical? Me?
@thebohemianheart (8827)
• United States
5 Nov 08
That sounds lovely. If it was legal here, I would like to just be buried in the ground, no sort of coffin at all, just something biodegradable wrapped around me, and planted to feed the worms. Maybe I should look into one of those forensic body farms where they bury people that way to study the way bodies decompose, or something. I'm not going to care one way or the other once I am gone, am I?
1 person likes this
@p1kef1sh (45681)
•
5 Nov 08
A woodland burial is pretty much everything that you said. I am sure that there must be something similar in the US. There are more and more people here electing for them. I shall donate a few organs to organ banks and then I was intending to be cremated, but I'm having a re-think.
1 person likes this
@1hopefulman (45120)
• Canada
5 Nov 08
Genesis 3:19 (New International Version)
"By the sweat of your brow
you will eat your food
until you return to the ground,
since from it you were taken;
for dust you are
and to dust you will return."
It really doesn't matter much in which way they dispose of me, since the end will be the same. However I would choose the most environment friendly way, so a woodland burial would dispose of me fine.
1 person likes this
@deeesfamilyvalues (318)
• United States
6 Nov 08
I had never thought about it, p1kef1sh. I think that as all things are starting to go green, so shall burial. I think this would be the best. What about mercury filings sitting in your noggin in your coffin? Do they take them out first? And what about the exchange of CO2 from the natural burial process. There is still measurable form of the decomposition proccess, right. I know that fancy coffins sitting in the ground aren't helping our earth. They are adding to the pollution regardless of whether or not they are sealed. I am talking about the vault now. I think going back to an all natural burial process is probably the best thing we can do. I am wondering if that is as cost effective as cremation. Stupid piece of trivia...a plasma screen tv has an effect on our environment for 550 years.(according to a green magazine I read yesterday) The old (boob tube)cathode tube was less detrimental to our environment than the new that everyone is running to. Scary huh.....I think I will opt for a greener burial and keep my old TV. How about you.
1 person likes this
@p1kef1sh (45681)
•
6 Nov 08
I'm with you. I don't have a plasma screen and if I had my way I'd not have a TV at all. I hardly watch the thing and I have to pay (in your money) $250 a year for the privilege of watching it in the form of a tax to the Government to pay for the BBC! My main objection to burial grounds is that whilst people talk about becoming human fertiliser; in truth they are contributing to nothing except grass, not crops etc.
1 person likes this
@maddysmommy (16230)
• United States
6 Nov 08
Sorry to hear about your loss P1kef1sh.
I've never considered a woodland burial, something to think about. I think I might want to be cremated, not too sure.
@manunulat (604)
• Philippines
6 Nov 08
That is an argument between me and my mother but just in case the order of nature is reversed wherein, I'll die first than my parents... I prefer to be cremated and would have to be cremated within 24 hours. As for my parents, we would bury them according to family tradition in a cemetery. I would prefer cremation so that my loved ones will not be burdened yearly with fees and would have a better grieving process by not coming in visiting me every November. I am a free-spirited person, I prefer to be cremated.
