Sunday, December 19, 2010

Today's bright idea: Combining a cemetery and an arboretum as a green alternative to conventional burial grounds and practices.
Supporting reasons:
  • Ecologically, conventional cemeteries are a nightmare because they require lawn to be fertilized, trimmed and watered and provide almost no wildlife habitat at all.
  • Also, they aren't very pleasant places
  • Conventional caskets are a wasteful and silly expenditure.
  • Planting a tree over a dead body is greener.
  • The idea of one's body being converted into a towering, beautiful tree that people will walk under is a lot more appealing than being a rotting corpse encased in metal or concrete under a skin of lawn.
  • Such a cemetery would give a more positive spin to the life--->death-->life cycle
  • The trees would provide wildlife habitat and could be longer lived than gravestones.
  • They're also more interesting than a gravestone.
  • The cemetery would have more than one function since it would also be a place where people would stroll, kiss, relax, read, meditate, etc.
  • For couples or families, the idea of having two trees planted nearby, knowing that their roots and branches will intertwine is a lot more romantic and less depressing than having two corpses rotting together side by side.
  • People could select particular trees (within reason for the climate/region) that would reflect their personality or identity.
  • There could be memorial plaques on the trees instead of gravestones. Or, there could be very small stones at the base of the tree. The grave markers would therefore never be lost, because it's pretty damned hard to lose a big tree.

I think this is what I want to happen to my shell when I die. Plant an apple tree over me.

Chnaged my mind. I want a Stewartia pseudocamelia instead... or possibly a hazelnut...

3 comments:

Winikeneke said...

Aloha, Rebekah. I understand. wish we could be friends..

Anonymous said...

http://islandbreath.org

chamoisee said...

Vincent, can you email me pleaase: chamoisee745@yahoo.com

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