Respect for the dead...

Post Reply New Topic

When I was a kid, I was traumatized when I saw people throwing chicken bones in the trash and embarrassed to call them fellow human beings. Same thing goes for once when my mother found a dead mouse in the bathroom closet while cleaning and flushed it down the crapper with the mop water... and when she once actually said, as if this was the most acceptable thing, what she ahd done to my dead budgie. "I threw him in the garbage." I found him in a garbage bag with slimy leftover food all over him, and there was other non-food stuff in there too. Then there was the time my mother said we couldn't keep a dead kitten in our freezer forever... she thought she might have thrown it in the trash by mistake, and when she found the little wooden box containing it, said "I found your thing!"

It's the opposite for me. I'm disturbed by the amount of "respect" corpses get, especially embalming. Everything that dies should be eaten by other living things until there's nothing left. That's how the life cycle works. I guess burning dead things is pretty natural too, so I don't have too much of a problem with it.

But what are we going to do as more and more land is taken up by perfectly preserved corpses in fancy boxes marked by stones and artificial flowers? Is that really the best way to honor the memory of someone's life?

A lot of it is sanitation as well, you can't just let corpses lie around or disease will spread. Embalming helps with this, as do the 'fancy boxes'. Otherwise when it rains, the water will touch these rotting bodies and carry the bacteria to rivers and lakes, the fish will get sick, kids swimming will get sick, it'd be a disaster. Even burning a body has its downside, the ashes can't just be dumped anywhere for the same reasons, so where would they go? Imagine if tons of human ashes were floating around, they aren't like tree ashes, they're oily and very unhealthy to inhale.

About all we can do is bury the dead, or send them into space I suppose....

Interesting argument on both sides, and I see both points. For me it's more important to respect the life of the living over the bodies of the dead. I get offended when I see people purposely step on bugs or small creatures outside, without thinking for a second that they are being disrespectful. I find lizards and small spiders in my house sometimes, and I do everything I can to scoop them up and get them outside, otherwise the cats are going to get them.

But if they are dead, they're dead - to me the body is just an empty shell when the life has left it.

I see your point about the sanitation issues, but modern cemeteries still strike me as a waste of space, especially as the population increases, leading to more corpses. I like to think there must be a way to let bodies disintegrate naturally without causing health problems for the living. But if that's not possible, maybe we could at least do a little better in terms of space. For instance, we could build large mausoleums (sp?).

I realize others may find this disgusting, but maybe there's a way to control the process of decay and prevent contamination. This is essentially what taxidermy involves. The process takes place indoors, under controlled circumstances. The difference would be that no effort would be made to preserve any part of the body.

I understand that many religions promote certain codes of treatment for the physical remains of the dead, but I think it's important to consider the practicality of these practices and prioritize respect for the living.

Perhaps we could process all the dead bodies into tiny little cubes and sell it as dog food?

Or we completly de-hydrate them and then shred them to use as fertilizer.

Or start multi-layering graveyards.

I suppose some tact would be helpful in these situations, especially from parents when their kids' pets die. As far as respecting dead animals, eh. I think their corpses shouldn't be abused. I think for health and sanitation reasons they should be properly disposed of. But I throw my chicken bones in the trash too. I'm not about to say a prayer and bury them in the back yard after dinner. I'm pretty sure I'd be committed. And rightly so.

I know that it matters to some people, the same way people have some sort of rituals or respect for other dead people because they had experiences with them and meant something to them. Or their pet died, and they treat it with respect, even if that pet's corpse is just a corpse because that pet once meant something to them and shared lots of experience with them--there was some kind of affection that made the corpse a symbol of what that pet used to be, so people treat them with respect. But robots like myself are oblivious to it. If I knew it mattered to someone else though, I'd leave it alone.

Hmmmm.... Maybe if your mother was not your mother who gave you your genes, she would be more connected to the dead pets and more comforting to you on their passing. So you would be less traumatised by the experience. Just a thought...

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mip7hqvKpqM[/youtube]



I've been somewhat casual with the bodies of small rodents before.
I have given respect to deer that I have hunted for food.

BUT

When my daughter got old enough to have pets and understand a bit about life and death, she changed the way I deal with INSECTS even... well most of the time anyway

I do think of her more when I'm contemplating killing something (non-human ) now, like a mouse, or spider, etc.

am have respect for dead bodies because they represent what were living creatures at the time,and because most of the ones have seen were of animals whom like very much [cats,squirrels,rats etc].
seeing and feeling the dead body also helps am understand death better.

if ever find a dead animal,am get it and take it home to bury,the thinking with that is if people are buried and they are living creatures,then why can't animals be buried to rather than left to be kicked around or rot on the street or be scraped up like crap by the council,as humans would not be left lying somewhere [then again,have heard of that happening before].

I have an horror of anything dead (unless it is unrecogniseable and cooked, ideally in that order)...as my long suffering neighbors (who were even presented with a totally adoreable, tiny dead puppy to bury one Christmas because I could not bear to touch him as soon as he was dead) can attest. But as for my own dead body, when the time comes, if nobody has enough hungry dogs/room in freezer/whatever I couldn't care less what happens to my body...I always liked the parsee "Towers of Silence" where bodies are exposed, safely high above the town, for nature to take it's course through flies, scavengers and bacteria.

BUT...

I have immense respect for the lives and ideas of the dead, and I get a sense of handing them back a few minutes of life whever I let the good of them influence the living in any way, big or small.

M

Funerals and graveyards are for the sake of the living. Many people like knowing they can "visit" their deceased loved ones, and continue to express their love by planting flowers, etc.
If it eases their pain, why not? I'm sure the dead don't mind one way or the other.
Same thing with pets. If it makes you feel better to bury them, go for it.
As for the chicken bones....if you feel that bad maybe consider vegetarianism?

I feel exactly the same way. I've always thought the rituals that the living go through for the dead were silly. A body is just a container, nothing more. We spend more time honoring something that had nothing to do with the love you felt for the deceased, and less time honoring their actual spirit.

They can put me out for waste management when I die, for all I care. Why would I want my family spending thousands of dollars on fancy arrangements for my corpse? So pointless.

I find cemetaries soothing. They are quiet and peaceful.
It's also comforting, when I'm having a bad day, to look at tombstones and remember that none of the worries on my mind really matter in the long run. No matter how much we succeed or fail, all they're gonna put on the stone is our name and dates of birth and death. It all amounts to nothing in the end, which could depress some people, but it makes me feel very zen-like.

So true.