My family is not a particularly religious bunch. Funeral services in my family consist of a midnight run to a McDonald's dumpster with a "Hefty" bag.

Dean

 

^


I too wish to be cremated. No desire to be rotting away in a casket.

If my burial creates a storyline worthy of "Six Feet Under" then I'd have to reconsider...

 

Rob,

I understand what you are saying (I do go to the cemetery to pray for my parents), but I don't think that cremation prevents what you do. In fact I would say that I hope my cremation encourages more of it.

When you consider today's mobile society, it is very unlikely that my children will grow old in the area that I currently live in. In fact I may move. This would mean that for me to visit a cemetery it would be very difficult. When I lived in Brooklyn, I went to my dad's site alot more than I do now.

If I am cremated there is nothing preventing my having a headstone (and maybe even a few complimentary ashes). But by having my ashes strewn in a place that is special to me, allows my loved ones to remember me in a more flexible way. As I stated earlier, I want to be strewn in Cooperstown. Maybe my kids will tell their kids the story and why I wanted that (my love of baseball) and whenever they go to a stadium they will remember me.

I am probably expecting alot, but given the mobile society we live in, I think this accommodates it well.

 

On cremation and on being buried and taking up space that living people can use, especially as the earth continues to get over crowed. I am also an organ donor and blood donor. Thanks for the reminder I am two weeks overdue to donate blood. I have given gallons over the years. It is my way of celebrating my good health.

I have left instructions in my will and set aside $10,000 dollars from my insurance policy to fund a "celebration of my life party" with-in one year of my death. So if I stop posting here for an extended period of time you had better start "PM"ing PlantPixie for an invite.

My sister-in-law is afraid of heights and a bit timid about taking risks. So just to get back at her I have left specific instructions to have my ashes scattered over either the Chesapeake Bay, off the south coast of eastern Long Island or off the coast of Ohua in Hawaii by my sister-in-law while flying upside down in an open cockpit bi-plane

 

Jim

Please don't misunderstand. I think the argument for cremation makes a great deal of sense, I think it is reasonable and rational. I even think your concern about the "mobile society" is correct. Still, I think there needs to be some sort of permanent tribute (I don't want to use the word memorial) to those who came before so that those who follow have a sense of their roots. A plaque on the temple wall doesn't seem enough.

I agree that many of our kids will live far away and be unable to visit, still there is a permanence to the cemetery. I know that where ever Liz's brother and sister roam, they always know where their parents are buried. Whenever they come here, they always visit the cemetery.

Liz and I are torn over this. We think that every argument makes sense, and every idea is worthy. Sooner of later we're going to have to come to terms with it and make a decision.

 

Hi Rob,

There is no right anwser, it is all personal choice.