Halloween Thoughts

I have an aversion to embalming, I don't believe in it and I do not want to be embalmed. I don't even want to have an autopsy if it can be helped. I recently read a short story by David Sedaris for Halloween about him visiting an undertaker and it reminded me of this feeling of mine. It's not just the embalming either, I don't want to be cremated. I don't want a fancy casket or an urn. I don't like the idea of an open casket or anything that makes it look like I'm alive when I'm not. People don't need to look at my dead body and be comforted by the appearance of me being still alive. The idea of it is ridiculous if you ask me. I used to be afraid of the idea of burial and wanted to be put in one of those above ground crypt things you see in places like New Orleans and old European cemeteries, but even that idea I don't like anymore. Why try and prolong or isolate a process that is inevitable and unavoidable, why not make the best of it? I just want to be buried. Maybe wrapped in a sheet or an old blanket, maybe a sleeping bag like Edward Abbey was. Just put me in the ground to return my nutrients to the earth, death as nature intended. Just like autumn leaves composting over the winter to feed the spring flowers. This poem by Thomas Hardy makes is sound better than my ramblings do. Other things I don't believe in: Mayonnaise, Flu Shots, body cleanses, morning people, and expiration dates
For things I do believe in see this older post.

Transformations by Thomas Hardy

Portion of this yew
Is a man my grandsire knew,
Bosomed here at its foot
This branch may be his wife,
A ruddy human life
Now turned to a green shoot.

These grasses must be made
Of her who often prayed,
Last century, for repose;
And the fair girl long ago
Whom I often tried to know
May be entering this rose.

So, they are not underground,
But as nerves and veins abound
In the growths of upper air,
And they feel the sun and rain,
And the energy again
That made them what they were!