By A. Ford
So I got this interesting email yesterday that asked what I thought was the wave of the future in death. I returned the email with several innocuous comments about how death hasn’t really changed in several thousand years. You know the usual ways are still pretty effective as far as I can tell. Heart failure, gunshot, hanging, scurvy, rabid frog attacks, have all been done and I suppose we could get serious and list some real killers here, but I won’t.
The person countered me in a snotty tone, and implied my parents weren’t married when I was born. No they wondered, “What the new style would be for burial in the next years?”
Glad you asked concerned reader.
How about in a box 6 feet deep? Or maybe Home Funeral? Jewish Funeral perchance? Or maybe you’d like to go and come back via Tibetan? I know mine will be in a pine-box on a slow train back to Georgia (bad country music reference).
The more popular way to go could be GREEN! 
Popular in Britain, this method of burial could include a planted tree instead of a headstone. The grounds you would be rested on would be maintained, but not manicured. The environment would not be victimized due to your untimely, or timely death. Here is the concept straight from Ramsey Creek Preserve:
Memorial nature parks are memorial parks specifically designed to save and restore significant wild lands. These parks will be a convenient, economical, beautiful, environmentally responsible and mainstream alternative to existing memorial parks.
…the link between land protection and death care is neither new nor unique to this country. Unfortunately modern cemeteries all too often destroy natural landscapes and chew up valuable open space: creating fertilized and herbicided, environments with dense interments and plastic flowers. A tremendous amount of money goes into expensive “leak-proof” caskets, vaults and mausoleum crypts, and to “perpetual care”. The average cost of funeral, burial space, casket and vault is now exceeding $5,000, and can go considerably higher. In our parks,
a significant part of the burial space expense goes to purchasing, restoring and maintaining real nature parks. Burials and ashes scatterings occur in these parks, but the interments must be natural, “dust to dust” burials (see related article on natural burials): no toxic embalming fluids, no vaults, and only biodegradable caskets. Because these are often the very expensive items, the total funeral costs for burial at Memorial Ecosystems parks are much less expensive than current averages. Because the total number of burials is strictly limited, far fewer interments occur than at usual memorial parks.
So you see, cheaper, more nature friendly, what’s not to love? Other than being laid to rest in the woods…nothing I don’t think. So in death…GREEN is the “new black”!
I like your site...but I can't find what I am looking for... Unfortunately, I found an awesome website, but I can't find a way to locate they info I need. I will visit your site again because you ARE on top of the game, but I need a search engine......
Posted by: Annie | 10/03/2006 at 07:16 PM
Come on!! Who let the liberals in here!! What's next... dig up the family tree?? I know -- just as long as you recycle it. Just think -- you could truly pass down your family genes.... and even write on it!! Shall We Gather By The River... because that is where we are gonna bury.....errrrrr Dig Up your body.
Last time I checked the color of death was BLUE.... or he sure looked blue.
Posted by: Richard Nibbler | 02/05/2004 at 12:51 AM
I am with Woody Allen on this one. "I don't fear death, I just don't want to be around when it happens."
Posted by: Mr. Oi | 02/04/2004 at 08:56 PM