BS: Do you want to be buried or cremated ?

Subject: Do you want to be buried or cremated ?
From: Rt Revd Sir jOhn from Hull
Date: 20 Dec 01 - 06:59 AM

And why? I want to be buried.

Subject: RE: BS: Do you want to be buried or cremated ?
From: GUEST
Date: 20 Dec 01 - 07:13 AM

Why?

Subject: RE: BS: Do you want to be buried or cremated ?
From: gnu
Date: 20 Dec 01 - 07:18 AM

Cause he doesn't want to burn in Hull.

Subject: RE: BS: Do you want to be buried or cremated ?
From: GUEST
Date: 20 Dec 01 - 07:20 AM

LOL! Good one gnu

Subject: RE: BS: Do you want to be buried or cremated ?
From: Paul from Hull
Date: 20 Dec 01 - 07:24 AM

*LOL*

Subject: RE: BS: Do you want to be buried or cremated ?
From: KitKat
Date: 20 Dec 01 - 07:29 AM

Is this a serious question? Personally I would rather be cremated. As a child, I watched my grandfather's coffin being lowered into a muddly hole on a freezing cold wet Winter day and was terribly upset at the thought of leaving him there to rot in the dark and damp.

Since then, I have attended the cremations of a number of close friends and relatives, including my father and my brother-in-law. Upsetting as these occasions were, the idea of setting their spirits free through fire was more comforting than mouldering in the earth.

Subject: RE: BS: Do you want to be buried or cremated ?
From: Skipjack K8
Date: 20 Dec 01 - 07:30 AM

Burnt. I've some prime 7" board left over from re-flooring the back room, and I'm knocking up my own casket as an economy measure, and to get to know the vehicle that will carry me to Hades. Any advice on linings?

Subject: RE: BS: Do you want to be buried or cremated ?
From: KitKat
Date: 20 Dec 01 - 07:38 AM

Are you going for luxury or economy. If luxury, midnight blue velvet would be my choice. If economy, how about woodchip wallpaper? Even more tasteful would be brick-effect wallpaper!

Subject: RE: BS: Do you want to be buried or cremated ?
From: Rt Revd Sir jOhn from Hull
Date: 20 Dec 01 - 07:42 AM

Yes its a serious question, I would like to be buried because I dont like the idea of being burnt.
Skipjack-I have got a set of plans for making your own coffin, do you want them? The cheapest way is to use old pallets.You have to be careful though as some crematorioms have rules about what they will burn.

Subject: RE: BS: Do you want to be buried or cremated ?
From: GUEST,Desdemona
Date: 20 Dec 01 - 07:51 AM

Oh, definitely buried! I've had the whole thing planned for years: winding sheet, a nice, old-fashioned box, nailed shut ('cause once I'm in I won't be coming out no more!), complete with a headstone w/rhyming couplets & memento mori. The lot. And I want to be in the overgrown & atmospheric 15th c. boneyard outside St James' church in Knowle, Solihull, where some of my family live.

Picked it out years ago!

(I'm still undecided as to the couplets, tho'!)

Subject: RE: BS: Do you want to be buried or cremated ?
From: Rt Revd Sir jOhn from Hull
Date: 20 Dec 01 - 07:52 AM

Here are the plans for anyone who wants to make their own coffin http://www.globalideasbank.org/natdeath/ndh6.html scroll down for the plans.

Subject: RE: BS: Do you want to be buried or cremated ?
From: Gervase
Date: 20 Dec 01 - 08:10 AM

I'd like to be buried at sea - if only to spite all the sods who at some point have expressed a wish to dance onmy grave!

Subject: RE: BS: Do you want to be buried or cremated ?
From: McGrath of Harlow
Date: 20 Dec 01 - 08:13 AM

If they built a big bonfire with your body in the heart of it and danced around it saying goodbye, kat's idea about "setting their spirits free through fire" would maybe make sense to me. But being wheeled away out of sight to be burnt in an oven, while the family and friends sit awkwardly in pews - no way.

Standing round a grave and lowering the body, and coming back later and tidying it up and putting in a few bulbs and so on is a better way to part, I feel.

What I like better is the idea of a woodland or better still an orchard burial, with an apple tree planted on top of you, or a blackberry bush. Woodland funerals are starting to come in. I don't think the apple trees and blackberry bushes have yet managed to make much headway, but I hope they'll come in time.

Subject: RE: BS: Do you want to be buried or cremated ?
From: GUEST,Roger the skiffler
Date: 20 Dec 01 - 08:34 AM

My family has long been in favour of cremation, the only time we don't get accused of being a waste of space. Being a cheapskate,I've gone one better and willed my body to the Inspector of Anatomy for transplant, dissection or research, or just for the general amusement of medical students. What's left is disposed of free!
I've asked for no ceremony but Herself will do what she likes, I expect (including dancing on the ashes!). RtS(Her list of hymns for her funeral keeps growing to the extent that they'll have to have at least one interval or refreshment break!)

Subject: RE: BS: Do you want to be buried or cremated ?
From: Snuffy
Date: 20 Dec 01 - 08:53 AM

But what is the most environment-friendly and energy-efficient way of disposing of mortal remains? You don't need a fire, or a box in a hole: just leave your corpse out in the wood and nature will recycle you for free.

Or should we be adding to pollution and global warming in death as in life? Perhaps I should be cut up and made into cattle-feed, like they did with all the other diseased brain tissue here in Britain.

WassaiL! V

Subject: RE: BS: Do you want to be buried or cremated ?
From: GUEST,Not a Ghoul
Date: 20 Dec 01 - 09:48 AM

Actually, I've made arrangements to have my body go to a teaching hospital -- cuts estate costs to zero and does some good for humanity. I've used this body well and would like to think it can do further good after I'm gone.

Subject: RE: BS: Do you want to be buried or cremated ?
From: Hollowfox
Date: 20 Dec 01 - 12:18 PM

Recycled (organ donation, that is), then composted. I really like the apple tree/blackberry bush idea. I've always liked both fruits, and the blackberry bushes wil keep anybody from bothering me with their stupid lawnmowers, etc. Plain softwood for the box, please, no varnish, paint, or lining to gum up the composting.

Subject: RE: BS: Do you want to be buried or cremated ?
From: Trevor
Date: 20 Dec 01 - 12:43 PM

I always thought I wanted to be buried until I heard 'Joy of Living'. It certainly made me think again, the beautiful lines about 'I'll be part of the curlews cry and the soaring hawk, the blue milkwort and the sundew hung with diamonds...I'll be riding the gentle wind as it blows through your hair....'.

Pass the tissues..

Subject: RE: BS: Do you want to be buried or cremated ?
From: Ebbie
Date: 20 Dec 01 - 12:50 PM

I haven't quite decided whether I'll do either. As the man said, 'I realize that no one has lived forever, but hey-somebody's got to be first!'

:^)

I think I'll go for cremation and scattered ashes, then a stone in a woodsy place for reflection... (There isn't much reflection in a mud puddle)

Subject: RE: BS: Do you want to be buried or cremated ?
From: GUEST,JohnB
Date: 20 Dec 01 - 12:51 PM

Burn Baby Burn when it's time to take your turn. JohnB

Subject: RE: BS: Do you want to be buried or cremated ?
From: CarolC
Date: 20 Dec 01 - 01:20 PM

Cremated. It's cheaper it just makes a lot more sense to me than planting a cheesy looking expensive box in the ground for no good reason.

Subject: RE: BS: Do you want to be buried or cremated ?
From: GUEST,Paul
Date: 20 Dec 01 - 01:30 PM

Cremated definately. Then have my ashes scattered on the sea in a beautiful place.

I concur with Trevor's Ewan MaColl quote, about becoming part of something else. That happens a lot slower with burial

Paul

btw, do Christians still worry about cremation because of 'bodies rising up from the grave' on judgement day?

Subject: RE: BS: Do you want to be buried or cremated ?
From: artbrooks
Date: 20 Dec 01 - 01:34 PM

Cremated
The worms crawl in
The worms crawl out
The worms crawl into your nose and mouth

Subject: RE: BS: Do you want to be buried or cremated ?
From: Dead Horse
Date: 20 Dec 01 - 01:44 PM

Stuffed.

Subject: RE: BS: Do you want to be buried or cremated ?
From: Lepus Rex
Date: 20 Dec 01 - 01:57 PM

I saw a guy being cremated earlier this year... Like a giant easy-bake oven. They took the 'cremains' out, ground them up in what looked like a large blender, dumped them into a bag, and packed the bag in the urn. Neat!

I'm not into embalming/rotting/etc, so I guess I vote 'cremation.'

Actually, that's a lie. I want a sky burial. But out of the two choices: cremation. :)

---Lepus Rex

Subject: RE: BS: Do you want to be buried or cremated ?
From: Fortunato
Date: 20 Dec 01 - 02:40 PM

Well, ain't this a cheery little topic for the holiday season. You guys picked a helluva time to quit taking the prozac. Come on cheer up you buggers; you apparently ain't dead yet since yer posting. Do I want to be buried or burned? Hell no. Neither. Nor shot nor stabbed nor drawn and quartered.

John from Hull, get down to the pub and have a pint, smile at a barmaid, tell a joke to the innkeeper. (Of course I could be wrong and this could be fun for some I suppose.) Happy Holidays :)Fortunato

Subject: RE: BS: Do you want to be buried or cremated ?
From: CarolC
Date: 20 Dec 01 - 03:01 PM

Hey! I'm happier than a pig in slop. Someone gave me a link to CBC radio online and I'm enjoying the hell out of it.

But I've got to do something while I'm listening to it. Seemed like a perfectly reasonable question for me to answer.

Subject: RE: BS: Do you want to be buried or cremated ?
From: Bat Goddess
Date: 20 Dec 01 - 03:15 PM

I'm a firm believer not only in recycling but in keeping the expense down. Since slow oxidation in the treetops or being placed at the bottom of my compost pile is illegal in New Hampshire, I'll settle for cremation and my ashes being scattered over the North Atlantic. I do intend to carve my own slate gravestone, however, probably in a very traditional style (pre-willow and urns) and with lots of ligatures since that's what I spend so much time studying. Got into a wonderful graveyard in Chester, Vermont a few weeks ago -- and me without a camera or rubbing materials!

Linn

Subject: RE: BS: Do you want to be buried or cremated ?
From: Gareth
Date: 20 Dec 01 - 03:20 PM

"Stop Engines"

Splash !

"Full Ahead all."

Gareth

Subject: RE: BS: Do you want to be buried or cremated ?
From: Clinton Hammond
Date: 20 Dec 01 - 03:27 PM

Organ donation should be manditory!

After I've done that... well... I saw a really neat show about seat belts and such... did you know that every car design is eventually tested with cadavers??? I wanna be one of those!!!

LOL!!!!!!

Subject: RE: BS: Do you want to be buried or cremated ?
From: Rick Fielding
Date: 20 Dec 01 - 03:31 PM

Neither. I'd rather wait til I've croaked!

After that happens I've told Heather to Fedex my body to Burke and Hare. Figure that the brain of a 12 year old in the body of Walter Brennan is not something they'd turn their noses up at (assuming she does it quickly!)

Rick

Subject: RE: BS: Do you want to be buried or cremated ?
From: Dicho (Frank Staplin)
Date: 20 Dec 01 - 04:50 PM

Gareth, good idea. Recycle as fish food.

Subject: RE: BS: Do you want to be buried or cremated ?
From: MMario
Date: 20 Dec 01 - 04:55 PM

Thanks, Rick! I was afraid I was going to have to say it.

Subject: RE: BS: Do you want to be buried or cremated ?
From: gnu
Date: 20 Dec 01 - 04:59 PM

Clinton... I agree. Now, how do you get a say in what they use your mortal remains for ? I'm thinking ATV into the woods at full throttle in top gear.... wait, they'll probably get that data upon my death anyway. Oh well, (ab)used parts for sale, cheap.

Subject: RE: BS: Do you want to be buried or cremated ?
From: gnu
Date: 20 Dec 01 - 05:02 PM

...and before CC makes any jokes about which parts were abused, I'm talking liver and brain here ! Geez, you got a dirty mind !

Subject: RE: BS: Do you want to be buried or cremated ?
From: Dicho (Frank Staplin)
Date: 20 Dec 01 - 05:46 PM

"Put tombstones at my head and feet, and on my breast carve a little turtle dove"- this way, Bat Goddess doesn't have to settle for just one stone.
Of course the old fashioned coffin with the wake before burial would be nice, with the Clancys singing Isn't It Grand, Boys

Subject: RE: BS: Do you want to be buried or cremated ?
From: gnu
Date: 20 Dec 01 - 06:04 PM

"And always remember, the longer you live, the sooner you bloody well die."... from "Isn't It Grand Boys". So, don't put off your decision.

Subject: RE: BS: Do you want to be buried or cremated ?
From: Little Hawk
Date: 20 Dec 01 - 07:41 PM

You can neither bury nor cremate my soul. What happens to my body is of little consequence, but I think cremation would be the most practical way of the 2, given present conditions around here.

- LH

Subject: RE: BS: Do you want to be buried or cremated ?
From: Ebbie
Date: 20 Dec 01 - 08:12 PM

Slight aside here: When they get to the point where they can graft a living head on to a body, do you want to be the donor or the donee?

Subject: RE: BS: Do you want to be buried or cremated ?
From: CarolC
Date: 20 Dec 01 - 09:45 PM

Neither one I think, Ebbie. I guess I'll leave that experiment to someone much more adventuresome than me.

...and before CC makes any jokes about which parts were abused, I'm talking liver and brain here ! Geez, you got a dirty mind !

Why gnu! Are you referring to me? I would never...

I assumed you meant brain, being the deep thinker that you are.

(Still, if you got the other parts, you might as well get some mileage out of them, don't you think?)

Subject: RE: BS: Do you want to be buried or cremated ?
From: 53
Date: 20 Dec 01 - 10:18 PM

i would like to be creamated so glenda could carry me around in her guitar case and i'll be able to go to all the concerts with her. BOB

Subject: RE: BS: Do you want to be buried or cremated ?
From: Robin2
Date: 20 Dec 01 - 10:32 PM

I'm leaving my body to science fiction

Subject: RE: BS: Do you want to be buried or cremated ?
From: McGrath of Harlow
Date: 20 Dec 01 - 10:39 PM

I like being able to visit the grave where my parents and now my brother are buried when I go back to Tipperary. I think it's good to have a place

No need for a big flash coffin. No need for any coffin - follow the custom of some monastic orders, where coffins aren't normally used. Or if there's some city ordinance requiring them (bloody cheek), you can get cardboard ones these days.

If it's got to be cremation, the Indians do it much better, out in the open.

Subject: RE: BS: Do you want to be buried or cremated ?
From: Joe Offer
Date: 20 Dec 01 - 11:35 PM

Well, if I can have Kendall sing Ashes on the Sea for me, then I want to be cremated. Actually, I don't care - I think the decision should be left to those I leave behind. I'll be dead, so I don't see how it would make a difference to me.

I had two good friends die this last year. Dick, a retired Air Force officer, died unexpectedly. He was in perfect health wehen I last saw him on Sunday morning, and we laid him in the grave on Saturday. He had a traditional funeral with a 21-gun salute, and then we watched as his coffin was lowered into the grave. As we left, we each threw a handful of dirt onto the coffin. Other times, I've seen people drop flowers onto the coffin.

Jim and I were best of friends. His journey to death lasted from September to April, and I spent a lot of time with him while he was ill. A month before he died, he suggested that his wife and I would make a wonderful couple. I think so, too - we're getting married January 12. Jim was cremated. We left a bit of him in the garden he built, and his wife and children scattered the rest of his ashes at his favorite place on the shores of the Pacific.

Both of these men lived good lives, and many friends gathered to sing for them and to say goodbye. Their funeral services were fitting tributes, and both the burial and the scattering of ashes were fitting ways to say goodbye. I'm glad I was asked to sing for them.

As for me, I don't care what they do after I'm dead. Just don't give me the 21-gun salute. Hurts my ears.

-Joe Offer-

Subject: RE: BS: Do you want to be buried or cremated ?
From: Joe Offer
Date: 21 Dec 01 - 12:01 AM

Somebody asked if Christian churches frowned on cremation. The Catholic Church used to prohibit it, but started to accept cremation about 40 years ago and eventually gave it full approval. It seems to be accepted by most "mainstream" churches. Don't know about conservative Christians.
-Joe Offer-

Subject: RE: BS: Do you want to be buried or cremated ?
From: Little Hawk
Date: 21 Dec 01 - 12:14 AM

Ebbie - WHAT????? I'll stick with my own head, and I'm not donating it to anyone else either! Why go through such a ludicrous procedure when Nature has provided more graceful (if more lengthy) methods already?

McGrath - I agree that the Indians have a far better approach to cremation, while the Vikings may have have the grandest approach of all...in both cases, out in the open, as a public ceremony of respect and farewell, rather than in some dusty metal furnace inside a funeral home.

- LH

Subject: RE: BS: Do you want to be buried or cremated ?
From: Kaleea
Date: 21 Dec 01 - 12:22 AM

Wow, is this topic about funeral music? I don't care as I won't be there. My organs shall go to others more needy, after which my family will have the right to decide. After all, the funeral and the point of contact where they "visit" the dearly departed is for those left behind. I plan to be elsewhere. It does not take a fire to release my spirit, according to the ancient eastern mysticism which I practice (some call it Christianity). But, rather, the spirit leaves the body at the point of "death." According to an even older eastern mysticism (Hinduism), at the time of death, one's spirit makes the final samhadi, or exit from the body. Final as when one practices Kriya Yoga, one learns to consciously exit the body through deep meditation--samahadi, and of course, one returns. Thus, when my spirit makes its "final" exit from my body, which I trust will occur before the removal of my organs, I will not be occupying my body, and therefore will have no more use for it. If this topic is about funeral music, make mine J.S.Bach. Oh, yes, my preference? That would be cremation & if'n I had my druthers, my ashes would be scattered, of course, in the northern rockies, in an undisclosed, safe location.

Subject: RE: BS: Do you want to be buried or cremated ?
From: gnu
Date: 21 Dec 01 - 04:36 AM

CC... I've miles and miles to go before I sleep... sorry, couldn't help it.

Subject: RE: BS: Do you want to be buried or cremated ?
From: Steve Parkes
Date: 21 Dec 01 - 06:59 AM

Most of my family were cremated, except for one or two stalwarts who opted for the old-fashioned way. I expect I shall go with the majority, but if there's anything useful I'm happy for it to go to a good "home".

I dont think I've ever been to visit any of their graves; I've never felt the need, since they're all still there in my heart. I shall have a memorial service of some kind--I think that's most important. I shall not have "Imagine" played: "Imagine there's no heaven ..."--no thank you!

Steve

Subject: RE: BS: Do you want to be buried or cremated ?
From: Stu
Date: 21 Dec 01 - 07:41 AM

I quite fancy a Tibetan sky burial. They chop you into tiny bits and feed you to the birds - no waste! Looks a bit gory but better than polluting the atmosphere or water table with my mortal remains.

The downside here is that in Tibet they have large vultures, and here in England we have a few crows.

Failing that, could a be buried in a big green barrow like my pre-roman ancestors please?