Pleasant Dinner Conversation

Pleasant Dinner Conversation - It seemed like a good idea at the time...

terribleturnip

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Pleasant Dinner Conversation	[Jul. 1st, 2011\|09:04 am] terribleturnip
So we went out to dinner last night with some friends we haven't seen since last summer -- and have been stationed overseas for the past three years and are just now returning home. Dad's still out of country for a while, but Mom and the two kids, 6th and 9th grade are back to get settled before the school year starts. So, this was sort of a quiet welcome home at our mutually favorite restaurant. And, eventually, the conversation turned to cadavers. AND THIS IS WHY I LOVE THEM. And then led to what do you want to happen to your corpse when you die. Right now my paperwork says I'm a whole body donation, with the ashes to be put in a reef ball or otherwise tossed in the ocean if that's cost prohibitive and in that case, I plead with my heirs to mix the ashes in with some chum or baitfish at least because I am all about the circle of life. My hope is that it will become legal to be mixed into some compost and then, a year later, my loved ones would gather to have a BLT with tomatoes fed by yours truly. My DREAM is that I'll be fed to pasture raised hogs and everyone can come back a year later to have a commemorative BLT and I will be the BACON. Because I am all about the circle of life and I so want to get right back into the scrum. But however it works out, no service. My friend's mother recently lost her companion of several years and has decided there will be no service as he's been ill for years, with no friends beyond her and no family to speak of. I hope I'm not in that situation when I go. I suspect I'll have friends. As long as I can cook and put out, I suppose there will be SOMEONE. The Captain can't wrap his head around me not wanting a service. This is where we are two polar opposites. I mean, look, if y'all want to call a Happy Hour in my honor, well okay. But an official Wake? No. Don't even THINK about an actual service with speechifying and all that. Good heavens, just get on with your life! I think I was born without whatever it is that leads people to memorialize things. They just put a memorial to 9/11 up in Kensington, a little seating area around a twisted girder and a cement block, the girder from the Twin Towers, the block from the Pentagon. And all I can think about is the thousands of things that that money would have been better spent on. There's already a memorial in New York...WHERE IT HAPPENED. And okay, I'm understand that. But what the hell does KENSINGTON need with a chunk of it? At least Kensington was part of the Pentagon crash response, but still...I'm pretty sure there's a poor person in town eating cat food or unable to afford their medication who could have used that money more. Or maybe some new equipment for the fire team, so they'll stop hiking up my damn taxes. Admittedly, if it were up to me, a lot of inspiring or breathtaking architectural monuments never would have been built. Although in my head...I'm still not entirely certain that's a bad thing. Anyway, best leave me off your memorial planning committee and if you want me to execute your estate...you'd better be very clear about what you want to happen, because you probably do NOT want that decision left in MY hands!
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Comments:

From:

thatliardiego
2011-07-01 01:17 pm (UTC)

Shorter Turnip: If you want to remember me, eat me.

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From:

terribleturnip
2011-07-01 02:06 pm (UTC)

Ironic, as an atheist, no?

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From:

thatliardiego
2011-07-01 02:12 pm (UTC)

I'm busy mulling over condiments.

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From:

terribleturnip
2011-07-01 02:30 pm (UTC)

Nice.

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From:

fountaingirl
2011-07-02 01:31 am (UTC)

*applause*

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From:

im_geva
2011-07-01 01:34 pm (UTC)

Yes.This.

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From:

sestree
2011-07-01 02:30 pm (UTC)

The Wild Granny didn't want a service so she didn't get one. A handful of us got together at The Wharf Rat and drank shots in her honor.

...and yes someone had phone sex for her (thankyou shewhowillremainnameless) and yes someone also got laid in her honor. Beats the fuck out of a funeral don't it?

I've had too many things removed to be donated to science. I used to tell people I wanted that though because "they do curb to curb transport".

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From:

terribleturnip
2011-07-01 03:17 pm (UTC)

Trust me, you can STILL be donated to science. You need to read the book "Stiff" by Mary Roach.

And since I think a nap beats a funeral, you celebrated her life appropriately!

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From:

russell_moore
2011-07-01 05:40 pm (UTC)

I like the concept of that reef ball idea ...

and for those who don't know what she is talking about, here is one company that does it:

http://www.eternalreefs.com/index.html

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From:

wildwose
2011-07-02 02:05 pm (UTC)

There is an awesome story from early Americana (I can't find the reference, so please ignore the lack of citation) about a town founder and his wife who were buried beneath the village square and an apple tree planted above them. Years later, they were going to move the bodies to memorial location and they found that tree had sent out two tap roots, penetrated the coffins and you could discern the shape of the long gone bodies by the form of the rootlets. The whole town had been making apple pies off the tree for years. I really don't worry about whether it is true or not.

This may be TMI but after Ellawyn was born the idea of her Placenta being disposed of in a medical incinerator offended me. It is, after all, a actual organ and the mother and child's DNA is rather intertwined. So we brought it home and buried it at the base of our huge Oak tree in Crownsville. The next year was a Masting Year, meaning the tree put out massive fall of Acorns. Oaks take a lots of iron from their surroundings and the placenta is all blood and iron, so every acorn most likely had an atom or two of that. During the Green Man March at MDRF I handed out hundreds of those acorns.

I assume you are familiar with Tibetan Sky Burial? Of note to all, do not click the follow link if you aren't OK with images of dismembered bodies being fed to vultures. Lovely idea. If you look through the references, you find links to a photo essay detailing the process. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sky_burial

Yeah, Circle Of Life. I am there with ya. I bet I have the only compost area in my county, (or state!) with a Latin Motto on a board above it. Omnia Mors Aequat. Death Makes Us Equal.

title or description

Actually have thought of getting a "Please Compost" tattoo. Although, if cremated, I dig the idea of the Life Gems.

I also love Wakes, so won't mind a big party. I couldn't stop the BOG Brothers from it if I wanted to.

Edited at 2011-07-02 02:06 pm (UTC)

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Yes.This.