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31 Dec 06 - 06:17 PM (#1923566) Subject: BS: Green Burial: How Do You Want to Go? From: GUEST As I looked up a link at Slate to another article, this slide show caught my eye. I like the idea of green burial and cremation both, as a means of getting rid of myself when the time comes. When researching alternatives when my mom passed two years ago, the idea I liked best was floating away in a biodegradable urn, my first choice. My family reacted REALLY negatively to the biodegradable casket idea. Anyone here given any of this serious thought? |
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31 Dec 06 - 06:30 PM (#1923576) Subject: RE: BS: Green Burial: How Do You Want to Go? From: GUEST,sky high I want to go with a bang. What better way to be 'sent off'. The last and highest rocket is your own ashes. The music would need some thought. Although the thought of whooshing skywards to 'Lucy in the sky with diamonds' has some appeal. |
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31 Dec 06 - 06:33 PM (#1923578) Subject: RE: BS: Green Burial: How Do You Want to Go? From: Sorcha Thanks, I marked the casket site. |
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31 Dec 06 - 06:38 PM (#1923584) Subject: RE: BS: Green Burial: How Do You Want to Go? From: Zany Mouse Mick and I want woodland funerals. The casket is made of cane or cardboard and a tree is planted on top. The idea is that the body feeds the tree. Rhiannon |
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31 Dec 06 - 07:12 PM (#1923601) Subject: RE: BS: Green Burial: How Do You Want to Go? From: GUEST http://www.lifegem.com/ creeps me out, though. Maybe because I'm not a big fan of diamonds? I dunno. Call me a spoil sport, but I just don't like the idea of being handed down as heirloom jewelry. |
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31 Dec 06 - 07:36 PM (#1923612) Subject: RE: BS: Green Burial: How Do You Want to Go? From: Bee After the useful bits are handed (or sawed) off, I've considered cremation the most sensible - but I've toyed with the idea of having my ashes mixed with pottery clay and made into mugs for my friends. Some of them seem rather creeped out by that idea, though. |
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31 Dec 06 - 07:41 PM (#1923619) Subject: RE: BS: Green Burial: How Do You Want to Go? From: mack/misophist The previous link don't work. Try this |
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31 Dec 06 - 07:48 PM (#1923627) Subject: RE: BS: Green Burial: How Do You Want to Go? From: mack/misophist In California it appears to be legal to dispose of ashes on your own. When my mother-in-law died, the cremation cost US$250; everything else was 'do it yourself'. |
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31 Dec 06 - 08:23 PM (#1923655) Subject: RE: BS: Green Burial: How Do You Want to Go? From: Rapparee I want to go quietly and with dignity. Not screaming and yelling like I probably will go. |
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31 Dec 06 - 11:21 PM (#1923717) Subject: RE: BS: Green Burial: How Do You Want to Go? From: Amergin I want to be stuffed. |
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01 Jan 07 - 12:36 AM (#1923738) Subject: RE: BS: Green Burial: How Do You Want to Go? From: Gurney Amergin, people have been telling me to get that for years! Cremated (not very green, they use fossil fuel)and scattered at sea for me. A local pro fisherman does the scattering here, when relatives don't want to attend. |
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01 Jan 07 - 11:16 AM (#1923994) Subject: RE: BS: Green Burial: How Do You Want to Go? From: aussiebloke I'd like to be cremated and have the ashes scattered all over my beloved ex-wife's carpets ;) cheers all aussiebloke |
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02 Jan 07 - 11:23 AM (#1924835) Subject: RE: BS: Green Burial: How Do You Want to Go? From: lady penelope Any useful parts removed by those who want them, the rest to be dipped in liquid nitrogen, crushed and the remains buried in a carboard box with much vegetation panted on top. Just got to find someone who actually performs this dervice......... |
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02 Jan 07 - 11:25 AM (#1924840) Subject: RE: BS: Green Burial: How Do You Want to Go? From: Little Hawk Get stuffed, Amergin! ;-) |
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02 Jan 07 - 11:40 AM (#1924853) Subject: RE: BS: Green Burial: How Do You Want to Go? From: Rapparee Oh, AFTERWARDS!!! Well, I've always thought that being encased in plastic, like those specimens found in biology labs in high school, encased in plastic. Only I thought that a cylinder with an screw-eye in the top would be nice. That way I could be lowered into a cylindrical hole that could be plugged up with a cylindrical stone. Then, should anyone in the future wonder what I looked like, they could remove the stone, hook a wrecker up to the screw-eye, and pull me up! And there I'd be, grinning idiotically, one hand holding a sign that reads "Don't I look natural?" and the other clenched in a fist, middle finger extened. |
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02 Jan 07 - 12:15 PM (#1924897) Subject: RE: BS: Green Burial: How Do You Want to Go? From: GUEST,Ms Aiah I don't want to be buried. I want to ascend bodily into heaven on a cloud. |
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02 Jan 07 - 07:23 PM (#1925208) Subject: RE: BS: Green Burial: How Do You Want to Go? From: Hawker I dont reaslly care! When I'm dead I wont mind (hopefully)! It would be nice to think I could be of some use - medical student practise piece or something then when done with, put me in a cardboard box and burn me! ( I really dont like the idea of rotting away under the soil!) Cheers Lucy |
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03 Jan 07 - 04:27 AM (#1925439) Subject: RE: BS: Green Burial: How Do You Want to Go? From: Paul Burke You probably won't notice, Lucy. But there was a rather moving television program a few years ago about the corpse of a vagrant who died, and his enbalmed body remained unclaimed for some time, until it was eventually acquired by a fairground owner. He painted it in fluorescent paint, and installed it in his ghost train ride, where it remained for many years until the show closed. The body, by then assumed to be a cleverly made dummy, made its way into an antique shop where it was bought by someone who examined it closely and found it was real. The program was about their attempts to restore the human history of the person who it used to be. |
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03 Jan 07 - 05:48 AM (#1925462) Subject: RE: BS: Green Burial: How Do You Want to Go? From: MBSLynne Well if I could, I'd just like to be shoved on the compost heap, minus any sort of case or coffin, but that isn't possible so mostly I go with Rhiannon's ideas. I don't want to be cremated. I know I won't care when it comes to the time, but since the first cremation I went to I have a deep disgust at the idea. I'm not really sure why. Rhiannon, there's a BIG difference in price between cane and cardboard. The basket work coffins are expensive. I don't want my family to be spending ridiculous amounts of money on my funeral which would be used to better purpose in their lives, so I want a coffin made of either cardboard or reclaimed wood...a packing case would be great. I want a tree planted to mark the spot. I don't want a Christian service, obviously. The Pagan Funeral Trust seems a good idea, though I'd be happy with a group of friends and family performing the ceremony. I most definitely DO want, after it's all over a bloody big sing composed of as many of my friends and family as are left and can make it. How are you fixed?? Love Lynne |
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03 Jan 07 - 05:56 AM (#1925467) Subject: RE: BS: Green Burial: How Do You Want to Go? From: Hawker I'm with you on the sing Lynne, I'll come back and haunt you all if it doesn't happen! And to make a little thread drift, an drag it out of BS what music would you all like? I personally will have to give this some thought! Cheers, Lucy |
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03 Jan 07 - 12:10 PM (#1925697) Subject: RE: BS: Green Burial: How Do You Want to Go? From: Scooby Doo Lynne, I have already organised my funeral and i have a cane coffin with a pagan service cost me around £2,000. Yas. |
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03 Jan 07 - 02:46 PM (#1925818) Subject: RE: BS: Green Burial: How Do You Want to Go? From: MBSLynne I hope the Big sing is also on the agenda Yas! I think £2000 is too much. I would like to keep it well under £1000. I know someone published a book about DIY funerals a few years ago...I heard a prog about it on the radio. It's a case of working out what is legal and what isn't and what the people you leave behind will not be hurt further by, since, to a great extent, funerals are for the family, not the deceased. What I want as far as music goes, is loud chorus songs such as those sung in the Middle Bar, and I particularly want "The Music Man" at the end. If Tony Day isn't around by then to sing it, someone else will ahve to! Among others I want "Blessed Quietness", Jon Heslop's "Send my soul to Fiddlers' Green" or whatever it's name actually is....damn! Can't think offhand of the others. A lot of the ones that Mike Gibson and co lead us in at the Big Sing on Sunday at Miskin. Thinking about it, I'd also like solos by some of my favourite friend/singers interspersed with the chorus songs. I'll have to think about it further Love Lynne |
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03 Jan 07 - 03:54 PM (#1925869) Subject: RE: BS: Green Burial: How Do You Want to Go? From: Peace The Music Man "You can bicker, you can talk, you can bicker, you can talk, you can talk talk talk, bicker, bicker bicker . . . but it's different than it was, no it ain't, no it ain't, no it ain't." That one? |
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03 Jan 07 - 08:19 PM (#1926038) Subject: RE: BS: Green Burial: How Do You Want to Go? From: GUEST,lighterdstump Donating one's remains to a medical school is one option. (Organ donation is not feasible if body donation is decided upon.) While such donations are important, I wish to encourage a cautionary approach to planning such a donation. If you're inclined toward the body donation option, find out all that you can about the program at the medical school under consideration. Try to speak with the person having direct control over the body donor program. Ask all the questions you can think of, and see whether you get answers that are complete and not evasive. Be certain to ask about the cost of transportation of the body, and how and when the cost is to be paid. Ask what happens if death occurs in one state or country when residency was in another (getting two coroner's or medical examiner's reports can complicate matters). Ask about any reasons that the instituion might use in rejecting a donation after the donor's death. I won't try to describe in this post the hideous ordeal that family members can be subjected to in trying to press through the wishes of a deceased loved one. And our experience was with a prestigious medical school in the southeastern USA. Take nothing for granted based on an institution's reputation. I'm not saying that you should not donate, only that you should proceed carefully. The spouse of the donating loved one has decided not to donate to the same institution, as had been planned. She and I will now most likely ask for cremation after organ donation, with prepaid arrangements, and thereafter strewing of remains in a nearby forest. |
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04 Jan 07 - 12:34 AM (#1926200) Subject: RE: BS: Green Burial: How Do You Want to Go? From: Cluin I always wanted the Plains Indian burial thing: remains on a platform for the scavengers to reduce to bones so I can give back to the wheel of life. But I guess that's not an option these days unless I time it right and walk off deep enough into the bush myself when dyin' time comes. I dunno but I always considered cremation to be a big FUCK YOU! to the Cosmos. Like I spent my life consuming and now at the end I wanna welch on the deal and not give back. But I can't see taking up 40 square feet or so of real estate with a dumbass stone over me either. |
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04 Jan 07 - 03:53 AM (#1926261) Subject: RE: BS: Green Burial: How Do You Want to Go? From: Paul Burke What's wrong with cremation? You get turned into carbon dioxide (which came from the atmosphere in the first place), water vapour, oxides of sulphur and nitrogen (which soon wash back into the soil), and a residue largely of calcium, sodium, phosphorus, potassium etc which goes back into the soil when your ashes are scattered. It takes energy to burn you- so a green cremation should be on a wood fire. Every bit gets recycled except for the soul, which hopefully has departed by the time of the cremation. It recycles much faster than burial (especially if enbalmed and sealed in a coffin) or getting etten by crows, which leaves the bones (calcium and potassium plus proteins) to decay over perhaps hundreds of years. "And o'er his bones, when they are bare, The wind shall blow for evermair.." |
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04 Jan 07 - 05:27 AM (#1926289) Subject: RE: BS: Green Burial: How Do You Want to Go? From: akenaton Amergin...If you want to be "stuffed" you've come to right place. I've been "stuffed" several times on MC. Its "up the chimney for me"...Ake |
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04 Jan 07 - 07:57 AM (#1926333) Subject: RE: BS: Green Burial: How Do You Want to Go? From: Scooby Doo Lynne, There will be singing afterwards and plenty of food too. Love Yas. |
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04 Jan 07 - 08:13 AM (#1926339) Subject: RE: BS: Green Burial: How Do You Want to Go? From: MBSLynne No, not that one Brucie, this one: "I am the music man I come from down your way, And I can play. What can you play? etc" |
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04 Jan 07 - 09:24 AM (#1926367) Subject: RE: BS: Green Burial: How Do You Want to Go? From: Rapparee Some friends thought about being laminated and used as a frieze. I've also thought that all of my worldly goods should be piled on a longship, my body placed on top with my good sword yclept "Eclair" in my hands, and with my wife lamenting over me the whole thing set on fire and sent out to sea. My wife, for some reason, disagrees with this idea. |
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04 Jan 07 - 02:14 PM (#1926623) Subject: RE: BS: Green Burial: How Do You Want to Go? From: Leadfingers Tom Paxton - 'Forest Lawns' I want to go simply when I go , They'll give me a simple funeral there I know With a hundred strolling strings , And topless Angels with Golden Wings Take me when I go to Forest Lawns |
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04 Jan 07 - 06:44 PM (#1926830) Subject: RE: BS: Green Burial: How Do You Want to Go? From: lady penelope Paul, the reason why cremation in it's current form is not particularly green is mainly because of the retrictions (specifically in the UK) placed on how you can be cremated. Because of population density the number of cremations that can take place at any one time in any given area is restricted. This means we would literally not have enough time to burn all the bodies if we used only wood. Not only that, you average wood fired funeral pyre dosen't actually burn that hot, so you aren't reducing corpses to anything less than bone anyway. There is apparently a way of building a funeral pyre using wood that will break down even bone, but it uses an awful lot of wood. So you're back to using large amounts of fuel. Gas and coal are both carbon based fuels, same as wood, none are any less polluting than the other when used in large amounts. I've never understood why people want their bodies embalmed, it merely delays the process of decay and means you take up space for no good reason. But even a body that hasn't been embalmed will take 20 - 30 years to be reduced enough to take to the old practice of removing the bones from the grave and placing them in a crypt. Exposing bodies to the elements & scavengers speeds up the process by quite a bit, but given the high density of population (and therefore dead people), desease becomes an acute problem if bodies are just left lying about. ( You can tell I've been thinking about this ! ) About 8 years ago, I happened to see a piece on tv about a Norwegian scientist who had discovered that if you freeze tissue using liquid nitrogen and then pulverise the frozen tissue, not only does that tissue take up less space, but as the structure of the tissue has already been broken down, even at a cellular level, the process of decay is reduced to 2 - 5 years. This would include bone. Hence why I'm on the lookout for someone willing to perform this service.... |
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04 Jan 07 - 07:40 PM (#1926861) Subject: RE: BS: Green Burial: How Do You Want to Go? From: Beer Well I got this new guitar than a beautiful lined case which I only paid $50;00 for. Then I got to thinking. I have an appontment next week to have our will redone as it is about 30 years old and things have change. Now if I requested to be cremated, the guitar case would be the perfect cheap but beautiful coffin. That's it. That's the way to go. Beer Speaking of which, there would be room for a 24 and a good bottle of single malt like Macallan just in case. |
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04 Jan 07 - 09:16 PM (#1926929) Subject: RE: BS: Green Burial: How Do You Want to Go? From: bobad I'm goin' to heaven in a split pea shell. |
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05 Jan 07 - 03:52 AM (#1927123) Subject: RE: BS: Green Burial: How Do You Want to Go? From: Paul Burke Not only that, you average wood fired funeral pyre dosen't actually burn that hot, so you aren't reducing corpses to anything less than bone anyway. There is apparently a way of building a funeral pyre using wood that will break down even bone, but it uses an awful lot of wood. Have you ever seen the contents of a Bronze Age cremation urn? Just ash and a few lumps of very calcified bone. I suppose they must have used a lot of wood, and probably crunched up the bigger bits of what was left. I must design a wind- powered cremation pyre, that electrolyses water than uses the resulting hydrogen and oxygen to blowtorch the corpse. It takes energy to liquefy the nitrogen, is it less that burning the corpse? |
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05 Jan 07 - 10:15 AM (#1927345) Subject: RE: BS: Green Burial: How Do You Want to Go? From: lady penelope Good point. I must go have a look....... |