It has become more and more apparent as I get older that there are a few taboo topics that remain popular. These 'taboo-topics' are ones that people are easy to mention (religion, politics) but also the ones not so easy to discuss relating to death, sex, and the afterlife.
I was sitting in All Saints Cafe recently here in Tallahassee when tonight i struck conversation an urban-planning major who was writing a paper on 'Green Burial'. This got us started on a lengthy dialogue concerning the number of graves on the earth and the social stigmas associated with cemeteries and death, in general.
Everyone wants to avoid the horrifying thought of a world covered in headstones and so naturally, as we grow in wisdom and numbers, it becomes apparent that we need new ways to deal with the way that we allow our dead to pass on. In western culture we are so attached to the image that a majority of humans are embalmed and buried in expensive coffins after the process of being pumped full of toxic chemicals and made up to look as they never really did in life and slow the decaying process. In this process families are then met with high taxing expenses both emotionally and emotionally. At this point in time, with all involved: burial, viewing, obituaries, etc., things add up being upwards of $8,000. We are then left with the unnaturally slowly decaying remains of our loved ones six-feet-under a heavy stone commemorating their existence. There are 800,000 gallons of formaldehyde dumped into U.S. soil every year via ground burial. Think you'll save us some by asking to be cremated? Well we place 600 pounds of vaporized mercury into the air every year as well, which can come back down in various life-disrupting forms (i.e., acid rain) due to cremation.
Death is a part of life. As present in the world around us and constantly reinforced is the idea that energy cannot be created nor destroyed. Some see death as the end of life. Others see it like the winter of the soul, serving as the time that the body is culled back to its roots and regrown as the old shafts of the past are recycled. In western culture we for the most part avoid the topic of what we think follows death. There is much speculation and plenty of soul-searching to do to find what you think this means to you and what sort of purpose it serves in your life. However, in regards to our loved ones still on this journey who are sometimes left haunted by the loss of our bodies on the earth beside them, then visit us below them and mourn our apparently 'dead' bodies:
This is not the way of nature. In nature, energy never dies and is always converted into a bigger picture. We understand that everything becomes something and energy is never lost. What do we see when we go to the graveyard to see our families? Manicured grass, the same headstones, the same drab aura of loss and farewell. Everything stays the same. .
I propose we change the way this happens.
I have always taken things to extremes, so naturally when i started thinking of 'Green Burial', I envisioned a way that we could eliminate waste in the sense of space that we would eventually run out of if we just buried everyone in cemeteries until the end of time. As I continued talking to this new friend, I started piecing together different random ideas i had seen played with and suddenly i started to have an incredible vision of what harmonious burial could be.
1. Capsula Mundi(http://www.capsulamundi.it/en/)
This project was created with the idea that WE ARE LIFE -- Even after living. The concept is that upon death, bodies would be placed in these giant seed pods that help the body to decay, feeding a tree that is planted above.
I thought this was a wonderful idea. People who choose to be buried in these sacred spaces could pick what they would become. Some might want to be an oak tree and provide homes and shade for seasons and seasons. Some may want to instead be a showy bunch of perennial flowers that the stewards of the space would tend to. The idea is that your loved ones would have something tangible to visit. Could you imagine visiting your cousin the magnolia tree -- to smell the spirit of the spring?
Unfortunately, this project isn't in full form yet. The founders are based in Italy, where burial in this fashion is illegal.
(You can totally be cremated and grown into a tree though, https://urnabios.com/)
2. Mushroom Burial Suit (http://coeio.com/)
Artist and MIT researcher Jae Rhim Lee has developed a suit to be worn at burial for the decomposition of the body at death.
"“What also started it was the mycologist Paul Stamets who I studied with. He is kind of the grandfather of people who work with mushrooms,” she adds. “He talks about the mushroom as being the interface organism between life and death, that mushrooms are the master decomposers. So what better organism to work with?”" -Huffington Post
The suit is a genius idea. Fungi are powerful species. Some can literally regrow brain cells(Lion's Mane), decompose petroleum, and now Jae Rhim says she is working on a strain of fungi called 'Infinity Mushrooms' which will help break down the human body while also cleansing the surrounding soil of any pollutants or toxins.
Mushrooms can save ground water and forests(https://www.permaculture.co.uk/readers-solutions/u...), connected by a network of web-like structures called mycelium which can expand over great distances while also transferring nutrients between plants. Pollution by way of ground contaminates like pesticides, herbicides, heavy metals and other chemicals are destroying the mycelium on our planet which is already being chopped up and divided by structures like roads. Doing everything we can to keep them intact will prolong and provide life for our planet.
Unfolded the vision: To choose what you would become. To be buried in mushroom spores, underneath a beautiful long-leaf pine, or maybe under a blueberry patch? There would be people who's work, highly-respected and compensated, that would tend to all your new needs. Watering, nutrient feeding, etc. Your great-great-grandchildren could come visit you, taking home your fruit, your pine cones, your acorns.. They could climb your new back and open a book, held in your wooden arms. When they get old, they can lie in your shade to do the same. It's a beautiful idea really. And now i'm just wondering what the world is waiting on. Life goes on~
