Apparently dying is an issue. Well, it\u2019s probably always an issue of some kind, whether it\u2019s your death or that of a loved one, friend, or colleague. For years I have given thought to ways I do not want to go.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Drowning<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Fire<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Dementia<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Recently, I\u2019ve added COVID to the list because the idea of gasping for air like a fish out of water or being intubated (I removed my mother from life support. She had been intubated for a week with no hope that her heart and lungs would ever support her again.) The list goes on, but I suspect that many of us who\u2019ve thought about it or read something or watched on TV or listened on radio have had the passing thought, \u201cI don\u2019t want to go that way.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But this isn\u2019t about going; it\u2019s about what happens after.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
There is a small but growing movement for eco-burials. In short, instead of being pumped full of chemistry, put in a resource-draining box and shoved into the ground to disintegrate leaching (potentially) toxic materials, there are alternatives.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
And, not cremation either. My Mom was cremated and I put her ashes in the flowerbed of the Sarasota County Public Library\u2014a place she loved\u2014then drove to Tarpon Springs and put the rest of her ashes on her mother\u2019s grave. My Dad was cremated, too. He sat on my brother\u2019s desk for awhile then was taken out into the Gulf on my brother\u2019s boat and dumped. I wanted my Dad\u2019s Lions Club buddies to put on their purple jackets and take him to a golf course\u2014a place he loved. I was overruled. My brother couldn\u2019t see himself parading around with a bunch of old guys on a golf course. I don\u2019t know if the Lions were on the boat. It wasn\u2019t really for Dad, so I didn\u2019t go.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Cremation, though, pumps our chemistry into the air. Sometimes people buy the box so those resources are used and they go up in smoke, too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The eco-departure alternatives turn you into energy (as you decompose) or into compost when you\u2019re done. All the elements that you have consumed throughout your life can be returned to the Earth from which they came. An article in this months Discover Magazine provides a vivid and exciting way to do your last give-back to planet Earth.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
If I\u2019ve gotta go, and I probably do, that\u2019s the way.<\/p>\n\n\n\n