We should be able to bury our dead. We should be allowed to bury them in the place of their choosing; on their own property, at sea, or set aflame on a raft that is cast out to sea; even perhaps, fed to hungry wolves. If cremation is opted for, the family should be allowed to oversee the process; to ensure that no blood is drained and no organs are taken, if the deceased had not agreed while living, to allow it.
That part of life which should be a sacred moment, just like when we are born, has been reduced to the mere flick of a switch. Now you see your loved one. Now you don’t. Few people have the meaningful closure that once was common. A dying person often made his transition while lying in his own bed, surrounded by loved ones. Since the advent of hospitals, many people die in cold, sterile rooms, hooked up by tubes to a myriad of machines, while helpless family members stand looking on, as mere spectators. The loving interactions that normally take place around the dying have become in most cases, obsolete.
The actual experience of death has been removed from most citizens. Their no longer living wives, husbands, sons, and daughters are whisked away by hospital personnel and transported to funeral homes where they remain unseen for hours or days. If burial is opted for, the body is drained of its once precious fluids and pumped full of embalming fluid to slow the advance of decay. I learned recently from a friend, that the embalmed bodies are placed inside a simple box, which is then placed inside the very costly, embellished coffin. This is to prevent worms and other decomposers from getting inside. My friend went on to say that this is probably a good thing for the worms because the embalming fluid would most likely poison them.
This preservation of bodies that are no longer inhabited, is a pointless effort to immortalize the persons who once lived in them. It is ignorance of the life for which our world has been designed. We are not our bodies. Our bodies are the vehicles we use while our spirit experiences life here on earth. When we are finished using them, they should be returned to the earth, to be recycled into something new. The astronomical cost of dying is just another example of capitalistic greed. Fancy coffins, hearses, cemeteries, and elaborate tombstones are a huge waste of space and resources. Bodies should be buried directly into the ground, no box required. A tree should then be planted above it – a fruit tree, a mighty oak, a fruiting shrub, or a rose bush. Death is our final opportunity to give something back to the life that was given to us. Like so many of our modern practises, death is not aligned with nature, but in direct opposition to it.
Here is a question you can ask yourself: If your loved one contracts COVID19, do you want her to die alone, in a hospital full of strangers, hooked up to ventilators and numerous other machines – or do you want her to pass peacefully in her own bed, where you can touch her and hold her hand and look into her eyes? Do you want to have the opportunity to say goodbye and to grieve in privacy? I believe the trauma caused to people, by the separation from loved ones at the time of their death, will come to haunt us for years to come. No pun intended.
