2616 Under The Sea.

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Is what we do with the dead important? Clearly it is to some people, but I wonder if there are those who look at this scene and think “Who cares?” With the vast range of personality and ideas in the world I suspect there are those who feel that way. If you are such a person I say to you “Fine.” I have no interest arguing the point, think whatever you like, strawman. If nothing else these characters care about what happens to the remains of someone they never knew. They care about honoring the dead for whatever reasons exist in them. I think there is something in many people that quietly says to them “Someday this will be me, I hope someone will honor me as well”.

I, however, still live at the time of this writing, and hope that you will honor me with support via the links above. I assure you I will appreciate it more now while the spark of life still burns within than I will after it has burnt out. Or at least I assume I will. It possible that I will appreciate it more after I have left this world for whatever lies beyond. I simply guess that when I rejoin the void all things sprang from I won’t be able to express appreciation in the way I can now, where you can see it.

Regardless, I hope you protect your living flame until we meet again. When next that time comes we will revel in the simple joys I try to present here. For now though, farewell.

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I cancelled my support on Patreon in order to switch to Subscribestar, but I can’t find your link for it. Do you still use it? If not, I will re-up for Patreon. Thanks for what you do.

Honestly, it’s one of those things where I’m pretty much, within a very few limits, willing to completely live and let live.

The thing about “how we treat the dead” is that they’re no longer here. No matter what you believe happens, the thing that was you is no longer here when you’re dead. Reincarnation, a trip to Allah, the Great White Throne Judgment, literally whatever belief you subscribe to, you as you know you are simply not here any more. It’s like caring about what happens to a childhood home you don’t really remember. When you have no attachment to a thing, your ability to attach much feeling to it diminishes accordingly.

I mean, there are some belief systems where how the body is handled really, really, really does matter. The ancient Greeks believed that if you didn’t receive a proper burial your soul couldn’t cross over the river Styx for hundreds of years. That’s actually a major plot point in the story of Sisyphus, the first time he cheated death he did so by telling his wife to desecrate his corpse and then while he was stuck on the banks of the Styx he convinced someone important from the underworld (I wanna say it was Persephone, but it might have been Thanatos or Hermes, I don’t recall for certain) to send him back temporarily to arrange for a proper burial, they took pity on him, sent him back, and he just didn’t return until they came to collect him again, lol.

So, for some belief systems, saying how the corpse is treated doesn’t matter because they aren’t here anymore isn’t true. Having said that, I agree with your point overall, the way corpses are treated is more about the living than the dead. Personally, I hope those I leave behind honor my wishes because I have a really cool idea, but honestly I’d rather they do something that makes THEM feel like they are honoring me than whatever I actually want, because barring having to bribe a ferryman or whatever, I don’t expect the treatment of my corpse to matter much to me at that point, but it will (hopefully) matter greatly to them.

If anyone’s interested, I want to be sent to one of those companies that will turn a corpse into a diamond, preferably one that will color the diamond, as I wanna be blue. Then I want to have a plaster (or something) skull commissioned with all kinds of arcane symbols and stuff etched into it, with gem settings in the eye sockets and for all the teeth (with removable plaster teeth set in them). I also want a pendant commissioned with a gem setting in that would allow me to be taken from the skull and worn for special occasions. I wanna be the right eye and convince my wife to be the left, and then hopefully as the generations continue my descendants will continue the tradition and become the teeth. I just love the idea of my future son bringing a date home, she sees this creepy skull with a blue gem for an eye and a bunch of arcane etchings on the mantle, she asks what’s up with that and my son can just be like “oh, that’s just my dad”!

As someone who actually makes plasters skulls (among other things) for a living, I can advise you to better make it a skull of a (sturdy) resin or plastic. Plaster can be much nicer (more realistic) painted because of it’s natural porosity, but is also more breakable and susceptible for damage on average. So if you want it to last for generations, you better chose something a bit more sturdy. ;-) …Great idea by the way, hope your descendants honor your wish and keep the tradition alive (so to speak) down the centuries.

When I’m dead, what remains is a collection of spare parts and a husk that reminds the living of my termination. Scrap it for what we can to help others, and use the rest to help the living say goodbye. No matter that it’s a conventional cremation, ground burial, at sea, blend it in a smoothie, or a viking style floating funeral pyre, do whatever helps those who remain say goodbye and heal.

I’m an organ donor. Already told my wife that whatever medical science can use of my body when I’m gone (considering the damage I’ve done to it already) I want them to use.
My mother is terrified of this idea, since Fox News once told her that doctors are taking organ donors that aren’t really dead yet and killing them for their organs.

I’m of the mind that it really doesn’t matter what one does with long-desecrated remains like this

which of course is why it carries all the more weight that anyone would put in the effort despite that

What we do for the dead only matters to the living. The dead are dead, but for the living it’s part of closure. For me, personally, when my dad died he just became memories to me. His body was cremated, and my mom took the box. I dunno what she did with it. Probably sat it on his favorite shelf and talks to it every day?

Mind you, I was still devastated. I was destroyed that he was gone. But his body being treated some kind of way wouldn’t have given me closure. Because nothing could.

Well, since nobody else has reccomended it yet, you all really should read Terry Pratchett’s ‘Johnny and the Dead’. It deals with the question of why remains are respected in a lot lot of detail, plus some ghosts, and of course it’s simply a good story.

Don’t forget to vote folks, we’ve dropped to 65th from 47th. Also yes I live. In the words of a great leader, I still function.

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