Morbid topic, consider yourself warned

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Yes, this will be a post about death, so if you don’t want to read about it, stop right here. The next paragraph will be about some silly stuff just in case you failed to be driven away. I don’t want anyone to say they saw the morbid stuff too quick.

Heavy rains this past week or so caused a small short in one of my trucks turn signal lights. I could tell because when I turned a corner the blinker would start going really fast, and then it would slow down after I started going straight again. The increased blinker speed is to let me know there is a turn signal light out. Just found that interesting. This summer is just flying by, I noticed our local Wally World already had school supplies out. So we jump past summer picnic season to school after the 4th of July. Makes me wonder what date they use in other parts of the world.

Morbid stuff starts now…..

My eldest daughter, her husband and I were talking about what to do with our bodies after we die. I was thinking about having my ashes turned to diamonds for each of my daughters. (If I can ever afford to do that, it is an expensive way to take care of a dead body.) Then I thought it would be nice to donate my body to science after removing any organs that can be used in transplants. We did get a little creative on this too. Like donating my skeleton to my old high school. I imagine that would be something. Or maybe encasing the said skeleton in Acrylic. Ashes mixed in with wood finishes was talked about, or even mixing the ashes with cement or tile mud. All very interesting things that could be done.

The one thing we talked about that I though was really interesting was the idea of donating my body to a Body Farm. I thought that was a very interesting concept. I had not heard of this before my son-in-law mentioned that it was what he was interested in. What made this more interesting is that I received an email from www.howstuffworks.com about the same subject. Then a did a Google search on the same topic.

Not only does donating your body to a body farm make a lot of sense financially (funerals and burial/cremation are very expensive), it also makes sense in a ‘Green’ way. An added bonus is that future CSIs can learn a lot from watching a body decompose. The “Green’ way is that you skip the added fuel and machinery needed to put a body in an big concrete block. Also skipped is the about of fuel need to completely consume a human body when it is cremated. What was our bodies will never get recycled by the planet when surrounded by tons of concrete. In the body farm the bodies are left exposed to the elements with the normal cycle of nature, doing what it does so well, using what is left over to support and renew the environment. I like the idea, but then again, the old pine boxes we used to use allowed the remains to be recycled by nature.

I do understand the other environmental needs to make sure that disease isn’t spread, but I think we tend to go way overboard with the complete enclosure in concrete.

Now my daughter, the genealogist, wants to make sure we put a plaque up somewhere for future generations. I don’t know if I see the point in that, but for her I would be willing. I have a feeling future genealogists will have a better way of finding out about their ancestors. The internet will be crawling with information if it isn’t already.

So, I will be looking into setting up my donation to a Body Farm, unless I win a big lottery. I kind of like the idea of my girls being able to say “Daddy is forever…” Morbid sense of humor, true, but it still tickles me.

7 thoughts on “Morbid topic, consider yourself warned”

  1. Morbid or practical? Maybe a little of both… I would not want to be cremated. I like the idea of being studied as a fossil of what the human race once was. Plus I want to give my offspring a place to come to grieve… my dad wants to be cremated and it always bugged me. Even though I never get around to visiting the graves of loved ones I have in IL, it still helps provide closure that they are there if I want to make a visit. Dunno much about body farms; I’ll have to research it. But I’m old fashioned that way, so I guess for me, it’s the ole pine box n cement in my beloved (new) hometown – even if it does involve being next to Walmart, sigh. I guess I’ll just have to get a really cool tombstone so people can come gawk at it while they’re waiting for their oil to be changed.

  2. A little OT, but I was reading an article in the paper about a climber who had just made it to the highest point in his 49th out of 50th state when he died. Unfortunately that highest point is also the highest point in the country- Mt. McKinley (I think?)- and they had to leave the body there. They may or may not be able to retrieve it later. Apparently many who have died on that mountain never had their bodies retrieved. How’s that for morbid? Not that I’m trying to compete with you… 😮

  3. Derek, your comments just made me think of something I missed in my conversation last Saturday. I forgot all about cryogenic freezing… Maybe another topic…

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