This thread is inspired by a George Carlin stand-up special I am watching right now. He is saying if we are gonna build something we should build it on cemeteries because…overall what’s the point?
So I am making this a little…bigger. The world is filling up. People, buildings, expansion, life is just taking up too much space. What are your personal opinions on cemeteries in general? I had never really thought about this until George mentioned it.
If I had to give my own opinion I would say overall they are actually kind of pointless. There is no REAL point in keeping a body intact for that long of a time period for it to do…nothing. If I had to give an overall solution to the problem I would destroy the bodies (burn em or something), and make a home memorial in a reusable metal. That way if your mom dies you can keep her in your heart and memories for as long as you live, but your great x5 grandkids probably won’t give a damn about her, so when the times comes for the world to “forget” just send it back for it to be melted down and re-used.
I like it. And I agree. Cemeteries are a waste of space and a terrible use of natural resources. Cremate them all and do what you will with the results.
Or keep the cemeteries, but get rid of the coffins & headstones. Bury people in a biodegradable shroud (or naked), and use the land above as parkland or to grow crops.
Don’t look at me - my family has been opting for cremation these last 25 years or so. In fact, I have a bit of my mom in a jar (dad says to add a bit of him when he goes).
(It’s a very pretty jar, all mother of pearl and silver. Mom would have loved it, she loved mother of pearl)
mrAru wants to be sent to a watery grave in a TDU can
I want to be harvested for research and transplant and rendered extra crispy and sprinkled somewhere, or tossed in the trash. If I am dead, I really dont need a body laying around anywhere. If I predecease mrAru I will probably get tucked in his TDU can for the big flush.
I really dont understand keeping 100+ lbs of rotting meat. I dont even want a funeral. Great waste of money IMHO. dad’s funeral last year was on the order of $16000. I just spent that on an almost new car.
I expect to be cremated when I go, but I think you’re vastly overestimating the amount of land needed for cemeteries. I really don’t think it’s a big problem at all.
I agree. And I think it would be a lot more effective, and practical, to find more efficient ways to use farmland (for example) than dictating to people how they dispose of their dead.
Are cemeteries necessary? No. You’re dead, you don’t need anything. Duh. Now good luck passing laws that force people who have a religious objection to cremation, or just prefer cemeteries as a memorial, to do things your way. That’ll go over like gangbusters.
Carlin’s original bit, for those of you who don’t know, was called “Golf courses for the homeless,” and proposed that all golf courses be converted to affordable public housing.
It’s my view that the dead don’t need anything, but it’s one I’m rather confident in. I also don’t think they need food, water, or funny hats and pony rides because they’re, yunno, dead, and their metabolic and cognitive processes have ceased. Is there something to argue about here?
However, there’s that old saying that funerals aren’t for the dead, they’re for the living, and it’s the same way with cemeteries. There’s little to be gained in dictating how people can bury their relatives, and there would be a lot of injured feelings and heartache involved.
We can fudge the details some, but I love looking at historic cemetaries and seeing how people changed the way they memorialize the dead over the years. I like seeing old names, and whole families buried together. Cemetaries associated with with military dead are neat (and not quite tragic) for the visible representation of all those lives lost.
I am not opposed to cremation, whether one then opts to scatter the ashes or stick the ashes in a specially made crypt (there are fancy names for such things). And I don’t have a family plot where I can be buried–the family plots which I am related to are in places I feel no attatchment.
But I see no advantage and lots of heartache and lost history to suggest that cemetaries have no purpose.
It’s not a bad thing to have open land with grass and trees. It would be better to put more buildings up? Cemetaries are interesting, historical and just neat.
I live a couple of blocks away from Woodlawn, one of the most famous ones in America. Not only does it provide parkland (and a major migratory bird stop) and space and facilities for public events like concerts and nature walks.
People also like to make pilgrimages to visit the famous–Pulitizer, Woolworth, Nellie Bly, Miles Davis, Celia Cruz, Duke Ellington, Isidor Straus from the Titanic, and many more. You can go on a Theatrical / Movie Tour (Irving Berlin, George M. Cohan, Olive Davis, Oscar Hammerstein II, Antionette Perry, etc.), or a Black History one (Madame CJ Walker, Ralph Bunche), Jazz Greats, and many more. The stained glass windows and architecture are museum-worthy; August Belmont (named the racetrack) built himself a one-fifth replica of St.-Denis.
Finally–and I know this is NOT the point you were making–there are other reasons for resting places when the people involved did not choose to not have one. I wept last week when Elie Wiesel visited Buchenwald with President Obama and made that speech, part of which went:
I guess if you’re convinced your great-grandkids won’t remember you, then don’t take a plot of land for yourself. But leave the cemeteries alone. I’m sure you get as upset as the rest of us when one is dug up (like the old slave one in downtown NYC a few years ago) or vandalized by some kids with swatstikas or whatever. Right?
We’ve been cremating in my family since the 60s. However, my mom’s ashes were parked in a grave site that she and my dad received from her folks when they got married. My dad’s will go in the site next to hers.
I guess some people find grave sites comforting. I don’t but my husband’s family just LOVES going to the graveyard to say hi to the dead people and clean up their little permanent homes.
I think cemetaries are great for meditation, wildlife, greenspace…I just don’t want to be buried in one. I want all the useable parts used, and the rest cremated and used to fertilize a memorial tree that’s planted in my name somewhere.
I think just this any time I go through Pere Lachaise, but the other day I stopped in a smaller, lush green cemetery and took a seat on one of the benches. It was lovely, and I suspect that even those who don’t believe in the afterlife and find the whole ceremony a bit gaudy know cemeteries are the best way to keep green space from turning into condos. I also wondered if having somewhere lovely to go to ‘visit’ a deceased loved one doesn’t make it a bit easier, especially on older people.
