jaxom1957 said:
Let me be the cold-hearted bastard in the bunch. When a pet dies, I feel the loss as deeply as anyone. What I don't feel is any reverence for the carcass. My dead animals go into a trash bag and then into the dumpster. If I still lived on a ranch, they would be going to the hogs, which frankly do not care WHAT they eat and have been known to be used by killers to dispose of their human victims.
I feel the same about humans. Once the person dies, the carcass is just that: a hunk of rotting meat that once housed a life. Without the life, the carcass is worthless. I don't like burials in coffins, mausoleums, any of that dreck. Between golf courses and cemeteries, far too much land is wasted; it'd better serve society if we built low-income housing on it, or medical clinics. Because the law requires that the body be disposed of within a restrictive list of parameters, my choice is cremation. After that, do what you will with the ashes. Open the jar in a convertible going down the freeway and let the ashes annoy the other drivers one last time, what do I care.
I remember my deceased pets with great fondness and regret at their passing, just as I do my lost relatives and friends. I just refuse to treat something as mundane as no-longer-animate flesh and bones as worthy of reverence.
Do you think you are cold-hearted, or do you imagine us viewing you that way? I've had beloved pets die, and depending on whose pet it was, they were 1) buried by my parents (their pets) or 2) cremated as per the wife's instructions (our pets). I have been amenable to both solutions. In an episode of Star Trek TNG long ago, I remember a Klingon character saying in response to the equivalent question for a dead Klingon: "It is an empty shell; treat it accordingly," or something similar, and I feel the same way. I get more attached to pets than I can justify or explain, but their dead bodies are of no import to me.
However, in response to a couple unrelated points presented in this post:
1) If you are ever in Cambridge, MA, go to Mt. Auburn cemetery. It is a wonderful, park-like place, I think it was designed by Olmstead or someone of equal import, and people go there simply to enjoy the area. A cemetery need not be a waste of land, even by your narrow definition. Since, however, people actually pay for those slots in the ground, they figure into the economy the same as all other non-preserve space and should have the same status. And, if at some point no one cares about it, you can certainly use it for commercial development down the road; I believe this has been done in the past with Indian graveyards, although I could be wrong. It is not spoken for in perpetuity; nothing ever is. Toxic dumps are far more damning as far as property goes.
2) It is interesting given your statements that you have a preference as to what should happen to you. Remember that you will be dead, and whatever assurances you have as to your wishes being fulfilled are for your benefit now, not then. Your cadaver will be effectively the same as everyone else's (except for the jewelry
) and should get the same disinterested treatment that your deceased snakes receive. I have no interest in my body when I am done with it; I will leave that future to those who are living in it. A dumpster will be fine, if unlikely.
Cheers,
-Sean
