Death after Death
I'm a pretty logical person, and although I would find it really interesting to talk about the spiritual and philosophical ideas of life after death, I'd much rather talk about death after death. More specifically, mine.
I'm not sure if it's considered morbid to have a death plan so early on (and I have no intentions of leaving this world anytime soon!), but I have some strong opinions about certain things pertaining to my death, and then some very neutral opinions towards other things. I totally agree with the statement that the funeral is for the living, and would like to point out that the last will and testament is very much for the living as well.
While most of what happens after I die doesn't really matter to me, I want my eventually death to create the best possible situation outside of the fact that I'd be dead. I wonder sometimes if I was born at a time where crazy scientific advances are made within my lifetime to vastly change the normal life of a human. Of course, things like smart phones and self-driving cars definitely are big things, but as someone who can appreciate sci-fi stories, the idea of potentially living way past 100 or having like a computer microchip in my head is both exciting and terrifying.
Whatever ends up happening in the future, the most important thing for right now is to try to tone down the dystopia and make sure that this planet survives. And one way that is often overlooked is by changing the way we're buried. Several years ago I saw a TED Talk that has stayed with me ever since. And that talk was about a mushroom burial suit. When you start to think about it, coffins are pretty ridiculous. We put people in a giant fancy box with unnecessary cushioning and pretty finishing on the wood. Talk about chemicals! If my plan somehow doesn't work out, please just throw me in an unfinished/untreated wooden box or just some linens made of raw material. We're sticking people in these boxes that'd take forever to biodegrade, and for what reason? It's not like we're going to dig them back up to check on what they look like a few years later. We also stick a bunch of chemicals in the people so that you can look at them look pretty and "peaceful" before they get buried. I'm sorry, but that's just unnecessary to me. I promise, there'll be plenty of photos and videos of me, and we [the general populace] might even have holograms by that point. All and in, everything about how we bury people seems to me to be ridiculously terrible for the environment.
So back to the TED talk. This super cool human being called Jae Rhim Lee decided to make a burial suit with mushrooms in it because FUN FACT, not only do extra chemicals get put in your body at death, but because of having lived on this earth in the way we do, we have a ton of toxins that our body has collected (because organisms tend to filter their environment) and when we get buried, all those terrible things will go right back into the earth. BUT instead of poisoning the earth with our dead bodies, we can actually get rid of those toxins by using mushrooms.
I'm not sure if it's considered morbid to have a death plan so early on (and I have no intentions of leaving this world anytime soon!), but I have some strong opinions about certain things pertaining to my death, and then some very neutral opinions towards other things. I totally agree with the statement that the funeral is for the living, and would like to point out that the last will and testament is very much for the living as well.
While most of what happens after I die doesn't really matter to me, I want my eventually death to create the best possible situation outside of the fact that I'd be dead. I wonder sometimes if I was born at a time where crazy scientific advances are made within my lifetime to vastly change the normal life of a human. Of course, things like smart phones and self-driving cars definitely are big things, but as someone who can appreciate sci-fi stories, the idea of potentially living way past 100 or having like a computer microchip in my head is both exciting and terrifying.
Whatever ends up happening in the future, the most important thing for right now is to try to tone down the dystopia and make sure that this planet survives. And one way that is often overlooked is by changing the way we're buried. Several years ago I saw a TED Talk that has stayed with me ever since. And that talk was about a mushroom burial suit. When you start to think about it, coffins are pretty ridiculous. We put people in a giant fancy box with unnecessary cushioning and pretty finishing on the wood. Talk about chemicals! If my plan somehow doesn't work out, please just throw me in an unfinished/untreated wooden box or just some linens made of raw material. We're sticking people in these boxes that'd take forever to biodegrade, and for what reason? It's not like we're going to dig them back up to check on what they look like a few years later. We also stick a bunch of chemicals in the people so that you can look at them look pretty and "peaceful" before they get buried. I'm sorry, but that's just unnecessary to me. I promise, there'll be plenty of photos and videos of me, and we [the general populace] might even have holograms by that point. All and in, everything about how we bury people seems to me to be ridiculously terrible for the environment.
So back to the TED talk. This super cool human being called Jae Rhim Lee decided to make a burial suit with mushrooms in it because FUN FACT, not only do extra chemicals get put in your body at death, but because of having lived on this earth in the way we do, we have a ton of toxins that our body has collected (because organisms tend to filter their environment) and when we get buried, all those terrible things will go right back into the earth. BUT instead of poisoning the earth with our dead bodies, we can actually get rid of those toxins by using mushrooms.
Link to TED site & transcript here.
Some people might be a little weirded out by the idea of mushrooms eating you, but not me. When I found out that by having mushrooms consume your dead body, you could actually get rid of those toxins rather than just dumping them elsewhere, I was sold. To me, it seems like the ideal way for your body to go. Remember the whole "ashes and ashes and dust to dust" thing? This is a way to get your body actually transform back into earth in a much shorter amount of time than if you're in a box.
So now that that's settled, when I die, I must be buried in a mushroom suit. Or as they call it, the Infinity Burial suit. Because I know that people get overwhelmed and distracted though, once I get to a stable place in my life where I have enough money to do so, I'm going to pre-order my burial suit. Honestly, it's not too expensive. You can get a suit or shroud in black or natural from their website. I'd probably go with a natural suit, but I don't really mind too much either way. $1500 either way. They also have options for pets, which is pretty cool.
The other main concern for me is the tombstone. For history, tombstones are pretty interesting. But logistically, they're just a big expensive piece of rock. Cemeteries take up a ton of space, and I'd really just prefer my body to just get absorbed back into the earth. I don't need some kind of of huge marker, because what really matters is my relationships and interactions with people and the world. So, if I have to be put in a cemetery, I would prefer a little free library type of marker with books available for the taking rather than a tombstone. If not, a tree or bench would be fine. Unless somebody I knew was a sculpture and wanted to create an art piece for me to mark the landing place of my dead body, I don't really need a non-useful marker. Trees and benches are a bit cliched, but they're useful, so if a library doesn't work out, either of those would be fine.
Lastly, the funeral. This is something for others, and to me, I wouldn't want it to be a burden to organize for others. I think it should be simple, doesn't really matter where it'll be or who would want to talk, since I don't know what the future holds, but I think a lot of music with lots of danceable music in order to get people up and dancing and smiling sounds like a good way to deal with grief, or celebrate my life. I doubt I'll decide to give any particularly weird requests for my funeral, but if I end up doing that, it'll probably be something to lift people up. By the time I die, I'll have had a full life of family and friends and traveling and dancing and sharing stories, and so my eventual death should be a bittersweet event of it being my time to leave, but having had a great time while here.
People joke about how girls plan their wedding from an early age, and while I think that's very true for a lot of people, I'm realizing now that I probably have my funeral more planned than may wedding. As I turn 21 this week, I continue to think about how much I appreciate all aspects of life. Growing up can be a struggle sometimes, but I think it's also really enjoyable. Just because I have a ideal end doesn't mean I have a middle wide-open to me. I forget sometimes that I'm still truly at the beginning. But I'm excited for it all. Now that we've discussed death, let's go live life!
~See ya!
Comments
Post a Comment