Grave Matters

Mr. Green is busy on his world-wide publicity tour for his new book. In the meantime, here's a Mr. Green classic column from February 2007.

Hey Mr. Green,
Why assume that you have to have a lawn on your grave site ("Hey Mr. Green," May/June 2006)? — Herb in Ithaca, New York

Because I've already bought a grave plot, and the cemetery association maintains conventional turf. But I'm sticking with the site, which features assorted ancestors and dearly beloveds, scoundrels and all. Call such a custom deeply spiritual, profoundly human, or just stupidly sentimental, but it remains the preference for many of us.

Environmentally conscious folks who are less attached to tradition can join a growing movement for green burial, which inters ashes or unembalmed corpses in simple caskets, shrouds, or urns in woods or meadows that retain their original character. To learn more, visit greenburialcouncil.org.

Comments

[Russell Donnelly]

I have this fantasy that when I finally pass(presuming I don't get hit by a soccer mom yakking on her cellphone driving a SUV with smoked windows who squashes me on my bike going to the farmers market-and the family all knows that if I am halfway brain dead the plan is to put me under,yank out anything salvageable and call up my fisherman schoolmate)that instead of the trip to Forest Lawn we'll call up this schoolmate and I'll take a one-way trip out to the middle of Cape Cod Bay and I'll gently roll off the stern in the traditional canvas sheet and join the stiped bass,bluefish,and humpback whales in the great circle of life.(also crabs and slime eels).Unfortunately some a**hole has already prohibited this under some stupid law concerning dumping at sea and now I have to be cremated in order to do this which I think is a waste of energy.(I figured the mourners could fish on the way back-or pull lobster traps and have a very tasty post-mortem shiva-although that's mixing metaphors.)

[scottsdale limo]

I agree 100% on it. A good configuration on the whole system.