Monday, July 17, 2006
Funerals outside the box
Bury our dead upright directly under the head stone. The hole would be easier to dig in that an Auger could be used and the space taken up by the grave site would be 1/10 of what is being used now. This would be especially appropriate with cremations. Another bonus for going this route would be the space in between the head stones could become paths without having to walk on the grave site.
Holes for full caskets would have to be a minimum of 12 feet deep if old standards of burying our deceased 6 feet under. Or the standards would have to be reinvented to allow for steel caskets or cremated remains.
I recently heard a story somewhere whereby they are recycling head stones in England because of the lack of cemetary space. Because some head stones and graves aren't being maintained due to a lack of funding by the present generation for past generations reaching as far back as the 1800's. Head stones and burial plots are being recycled and newly deceased are being buried beside or ontop of the old interns with the head stone being reengraved with the new internee. All efforts were made to contact living relatives to get the appropriate permission. In most cases when the living relatives were contacted they were in agreement because of the monetary requirements of maintaining the past generations of grave sites woud have been to foreboding to maintain.
I know that the position of prone and thought of being put to rest closely lends it self to being interned in the prone position. But we spend the majority of our life upright and why not spend our life in eternity upright. Hmm this is a hard point to argue.
The main reasoning for burying our deceased 6 feet under to my knowledge was so that scavengers couldn't easily access the deceased.
I realise talking about how we intern our deceased can be a very touchy, emotional and distressing subject and time in the survivors life but when a burial of a loved one is threatening to put the remaining family into financial difficulty maybe accepted norms need to be challenged for the benefit of those who are left behind without sacraficing the dignity of the deceased and financial well being of the survivors. With the low ball estimate of a traditional funeral costing somewhere in the range of 10,000$ and a cremation which not everyone is willing to opt for costing in the range of 3000$ due in large part because of the cost of a head stone and burial plot maybe we need to rethink how we honor our ancestors as well as provide a decent and economical way in which to intern our loved ones.
Please don't kill the messanger I'm just throwing out ideas and suggetions knowing full well that we are going to see an increase in the demand for burial plots sometime in the near future due to the Baby boomers age and inevitable demise.
I kno I personally would rather be interned underneath my head stone. That way noone will ever walk on my remains and I wouldn't be taking away from prime real estate in my death. As well the burden I would be putting onto my remaining suriving family would be that much less in perpetuity.
Holes for full caskets would have to be a minimum of 12 feet deep if old standards of burying our deceased 6 feet under. Or the standards would have to be reinvented to allow for steel caskets or cremated remains.
I recently heard a story somewhere whereby they are recycling head stones in England because of the lack of cemetary space. Because some head stones and graves aren't being maintained due to a lack of funding by the present generation for past generations reaching as far back as the 1800's. Head stones and burial plots are being recycled and newly deceased are being buried beside or ontop of the old interns with the head stone being reengraved with the new internee. All efforts were made to contact living relatives to get the appropriate permission. In most cases when the living relatives were contacted they were in agreement because of the monetary requirements of maintaining the past generations of grave sites woud have been to foreboding to maintain.
I know that the position of prone and thought of being put to rest closely lends it self to being interned in the prone position. But we spend the majority of our life upright and why not spend our life in eternity upright. Hmm this is a hard point to argue.
The main reasoning for burying our deceased 6 feet under to my knowledge was so that scavengers couldn't easily access the deceased.
I realise talking about how we intern our deceased can be a very touchy, emotional and distressing subject and time in the survivors life but when a burial of a loved one is threatening to put the remaining family into financial difficulty maybe accepted norms need to be challenged for the benefit of those who are left behind without sacraficing the dignity of the deceased and financial well being of the survivors. With the low ball estimate of a traditional funeral costing somewhere in the range of 10,000$ and a cremation which not everyone is willing to opt for costing in the range of 3000$ due in large part because of the cost of a head stone and burial plot maybe we need to rethink how we honor our ancestors as well as provide a decent and economical way in which to intern our loved ones.
Please don't kill the messanger I'm just throwing out ideas and suggetions knowing full well that we are going to see an increase in the demand for burial plots sometime in the near future due to the Baby boomers age and inevitable demise.
I kno I personally would rather be interned underneath my head stone. That way noone will ever walk on my remains and I wouldn't be taking away from prime real estate in my death. As well the burden I would be putting onto my remaining suriving family would be that much less in perpetuity.
Subscribe to Posts [Atom]
