| Author | Message |
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Willow Root
Killjoy
Age: 29
Gender: Female
Posts: 19 | April 29th, 2008 at 04:33pm
okay me and my friend were talking about this today. I hate it when people are buired becasue that one spot is all the world has left to remember you by and its just a number in a grid. Thats all graveyards are is girds. I wouldn't want that. I think the dead deserve to be more than data. So I tell her this and then she made an excellant point: God gave you that body and you have no right to do anything to it. WH YWOULD HE WANT YOU TO BE REDUCED TO ASHES?? Hmmm so that was our deathly disagrement of the day. so whaddaya u guys think ?? |
Chantal
Bleeding on the Floor
Age: 29
Gender: Female
Posts: 1015 | April 29th, 2008 at 06:56pm I think cremation is a more personal way to live after you die(i hope that made sense) I agree with you, that it seems more fitting that someone be cremated and then the ashes spread somewhere personal to them or have it be with their family if family was what was the most important thing in your life. To me this is like a symbolic way of letting you live where your heart truly did live when you were alive, a ore symbolic tribute to you |
HEY AMY
Salute You in Your Grave
Age: 32
Gender: Female
Posts: 3503 | April 30th, 2008 at 02:51am hmm. im not sure what i think. i think both are perfectly fine, but i dont know what id want.
i mean, i know it sounds silly... but i have a fear of being buried alive, so sometimes i wish id be cremated incase im still alive. lol. it would be nice to have my ashes spread somewhere that i love though. but being buried is traditional. im really not sure what id do. but i dont have a problem with either of them. |
sir_pleb
Jazz Hands
Age: 33
Gender: Male
Posts: 303 | April 30th, 2008 at 09:42am I think there's a certain dignity in graveyards. It's more than just a grid. Take for example the world war graves in France. They have a very real impact on you. Whilst unutterably sad, there is a beauty about them.
It also lasts. Sure that one spot will be the final signpost that you were once alive, but what do you get with cremation and spreading your ashes on a spot? It'll mark the spot for relatives and friends, but one hundred years down the line? No one will remember the action then. The only traces of your life will be records, pieces of data. A grave says more, it says this person is buried at this spot, in a coffin, not just some random name in a book. Something visual will have a personal effect on the viewer, moreso than any writing in a book. |
Kid__
Always Born a Crime
Age: 33
Gender: Female
Posts: 6686 | April 30th, 2008 at 10:50am It's a personal choice really but I guess it depends a bit on religion and tradition too, doesn't it?
I find graveyards to be a lovely place, personally. They're so sad yet beautiful. But to me, graves aren't for the dead, they're for the living. It's somewhere for people to go and say "I knew this person, they are here, I can still come and visit them and talk to them. This is proof that they existed." Some people need that proof as closure, so they know that their loved ones are never coming back. I know that sounds awful, but sometimes seeing someone in a coffin, or their name on a stone is the closure that you need to prove that they are gone.
Graves are also useful for tracing family history, because you can go and see where your ancestors are rather than just read about where they lived or who they were, it makes it that little bit more personal to actually see something that proves their existance.
Cremation offers that sense of freedom - you can go where you want and don't have to stay in one space forever; you can have your ashes scattered in a place you loved when you were alive, somewhere that has meaning to you and that you are attatched to for some reason or another. |
Rexperience
Bleeding on the Floor
Age: 32
Gender: Male
Posts: 1052 | April 30th, 2008 at 04:40pm Honestly I think it was one mistranslation two many over the Melania the old testament has survived and now we have wasted countless square miles as burial grounds. Its nice to have a memorial of a person, but why the physical remains? I mean you are so much more than your body, whats it really matter what happens to it once your gone?
Cremation personally kinda creeps me out....I'm donating my body to science so some use can come of it. ~ Rex |
sir_pleb
Jazz Hands
Age: 33
Gender: Male
Posts: 303 | Rex, I hate to break this to you but you'll still be cremated once they've finished with it. At the moment, there's no guarantee your body will be in the right condition for use as well.
Anyhow, are you really anything more than your body? It is the only hard evidence that you exist, or did once exist. Would a gravestone be any better than a list, without the physical remains? What makes something like the Thiepval Memorial poignant is that there are so many names that do not have any physical remains that are known of. |
BlackRoseDying
Fabulous Killjoy
Age: 30
Gender: Female
Posts: 121 | i would want to be cremated, dont know why, but it seem better cause you dont have maggots and stuff crawing into your corpse. |
Ar!el
Jazz Hands
Age: 32
Gender: Female
Posts: 259 | There are benefits to both sides I guess.
There are some religions against cremation and a lot of people find it more traditional to be buried. Others find it more respectful to the body to bury it than to burn it.
But as for cremation, cemeteries are getting pretty crowded and cremation does solve that problem. It's also a way for you to keep your loved ones around (like in an urn) because some people do want to be able to do that. |
Mindfuck
Always Born a Crime
Age: -
Gender: Female
Posts: 5614 | I think people should decide before they die how and where their body would end up, and most people already include it in their will.
I personally like the idea of a having a headstone, but then again, I also like the idea of being cremated and put in, say, a hourglass. I know that sounds creepy, but I think both burial and cremation are dignified ways of disposing of one's body.
[and also, can someone who is able to please correct the spelling of 'cremation' in the title of the thread? It's kinda annoying hehe.] |
Rexperience
Bleeding on the Floor
Age: 32
Gender: Male
Posts: 1052 | sir_pleb:Rex, I hate to break this to you but you'll still be cremated once they've finished with it.
Thats all right, what creeps me out is the idea of keeping people's ashes around as some kind of comfort...gross!
Burial seams kinda like a waste of space for me, although I have started a Pet Cematary near my cabin up north, but this was inspired by the book, and I like the feeling of it all.
I really don't care what happens to my body, but I hope some good can come of it through donation of organs and educationals suff etc.
Another cool thing I like is just to be put out in nature and let the wild make use of you, to bad this isn't legal. ~ Rex |
Demolition Lover 85
Killjoy
Age: 38
Gender: Female
Posts: 51 | I dunno I always just thought I'd be buried somewhere and my family could come visit my grave my husband on the other hand wants to be cremated. But to me I'd feel odd having his ashes sitting on my mantel. I would always hav ehim near me but I never really had thought about it. I still kinda prefer the burial thing myself. |
girl interrupted.
Salute You in Your Grave
Age: 29
Gender: Female
Posts: 2792 | I think both are fine, and it's your personal choice, but I'd much prefer to be buried myself.
I'd rather have to get off my sofa to go to a graveyard than to just have to look on the mantelpiece. I think it would be rather creepy to have the ashes of a dead body in the same room as you. |
Spirited Away
Joining The Black Parade
Age: 31
Gender: Female
Posts: 200 | May 11th, 2008 at 07:23pm Well, my personal choice is to be cremated. I already told some people...
But being buried is totally fine. The thing with me is that my body would have to stay in one place the whole entire time I'm dead. Which would be forever after I die. Also, being buried is kinda expensive.
I think of cremation as, even though you're dead, you're kinda alive in a way. Eventually your ashes will be blown away and then maybe your ashes will fall into the ocean and then you'll become a sedimentary rock! Doesnt that sound fun?
You'll become one with the cycle of the earth. Instead of staying in one place the whole time and then eventually...rotting. |
Nadia Way
Jazz Hands
Age: 30
Gender: Female
Posts: 386 | May 11th, 2008 at 07:55pm i ahve no idea. the idea of either doesnt really appeal to me |
Nadia Way
Jazz Hands
Age: 30
Gender: Female
Posts: 386 | May 11th, 2008 at 07:56pm .. not like there are much otehr choices |
Nadia Way
Jazz Hands
Age: 30
Gender: Female
Posts: 386 | May 11th, 2008 at 07:56pm *have
**other
sorry i can't spell |
IceHog69
Bulletproof Heart
Age: 31
Gender: -
Posts: 25232 | May 13th, 2008 at 04:26am I think both are fine, but I don't really want to be cremated, I kinda like the idea of death being an eternal sleep, and having a little white coffin in a cemetery/graveyard is kind of a nice image to me. I know my mom wants to be cremated, and I suggested having her ashes made into a diamond, cause you can do that, but it is really expensive, but then she could always be there, and it wouldn't be as weird as having a burned body on the mantelpiece...
I think it is nice to be able to go to a grave, and sit there and talk to the person in the ground. I don't like ti when it rains though, because everyone runs off to stay dry,in their cars, but then the dead people are still out in the rain, and it's raining on them, and it's not nice. |
Radio Saturday
Salute You in Your Grave
Age: 34
Gender: Female
Posts: 3513 | May 13th, 2008 at 06:23am sir_pleb:...What makes something like the Thiepval Memorial poignant is that there are so many names that do not have any physical remains that are known of.
Sir_Pleb, just for mentioning Thiepval, you made my day. (I'm kind of a WWI geek and I've been to Thiepval several times.)
---
On topic: I frankly dislike both options, as they exist today. I find cremation somewhat distressing, mostly for the reasons everyone else has already stated. But I also don't like some of the regulations governing burial today. I know in some places you have to have a coffin that won't degrade in the ground, for example, and I really hate the idea of my mortal remains putrefying in a plastic box. Makes me feel a bit sick just thinking about it.
I always felt that burial in something like a cardboard box (speedily-degrading material, hastening my ultimate absorption into the soil) with a tree planted above me would be nice. Then the family gets the tree, and I get the satisfaction of feeling like a Thomas Hardy poem.
But that's just me. A lot of people I know are, for some reason, quite drawn to the viking method.  |
tabitha
Bleeding on the Floor
Age: 45
Gender: Female
Posts: 1831 | May 13th, 2008 at 06:55am I understand the religious implications regarding burial, the one I'm most familiar with is the Christian belief that Christ will resurrect His followers, so people read into that as meaning that He will resurrect their physical forms. However -- I personally believe more in the "ashes to ashes, dust to dust" -- meaning, God made humans out of the earth to begin with; He doesn't need to resurrect my body, nor will He; it will be my soul that is resurrected.
Other cultures believed that by burning a body, it released their souls into the afterlife. Some Native American cultures believed that if a body was not whole at the time of death, their spirit could not go to the afterlife and often would desecrate the bodies of their enemies to keep them from their afterlife. No one really knows what is right, and I do believe that each person should have their choice, but I'm definitely pro-cremation.
I look at it from the perspective that there are 6.5 billion people on this planet right now. Think about how much land would be needed to bury each and every person alive right now. Then remember that a large portion of that 6.5 bil will procreate at some point in their lives. That means we need farmland for livestock and crops to feed everyone, and land to house them all. Graveyards become hallowed ground that can never again be used for any other purpose. Religion or no, we can't feed everyone alive today, and we are rapidly losing farmland to graveyards, strip malls, and Wal-Mart Supercenters.
When I die, after they donate any of my usable organs, I've requested cremation for the rest. Hubs and I often joke about using a Folgers coffee can (a la The Big Lebowski) for transportation of our remains, and launching them out of one of those giant SkyCoasters like the one they have at the hokey tourist spots here. I think people take death too seriously. Hunter S. Thompson had the right idea. |
