A Return

I'd actually like to return to my second post. I believe it being the blog prompt about what I would want in my own grave. It hasn't changed that much, although in thinking about it my idea's have become more substantial and defined. Cremation would be acceptable if my first option could not be met. The first option being, burial in surrounding layers of salt with a wax-sealed bottle of Talisker and a laminated note explaining why and gifting the scotch in my name.

However, the second option to this prompt was what would someone else place in my grave, be it a family member or friend. Yet, the options there are too broad and to varied depending on who's doing the burial. My mother may place in my baby blanket, my father may place in his teddy bear, Brownie Bear, that he gave me, and friends are antoher matter entirely. However, I wonder instead if the issue here shouldn't be on what they place in, but as to whether or not I would be buried following my own desires.

Burial is a cultural act carried out by the living, partly associating me with the bad ethical archaeologist in that dead people are dead so burial isn't really their thing anyway. So, would my family, friends, or laws allow me to be buried in salt with these particular items? Salt would harm the environment, make it difficult for plants and grass to grow above the grave (and god[s] forbid that the cemetery would have patchy grass), and perhaps it would just be too unsightly. Perhaps they would consier that the second option of cremation would make more sense, it's certianly cheaper and more practical to the living...

Even if we know the people doing the burial, that doesn't mean that they will act at a burial as they would have acted towards us in life. Does it matter than how I want to be buried or what I think someone may place in my grave? Not on a practical level. But on the off chance that it will come to pass that way, why wouldn't we -- talking on a practical level -- not do it? That and I am a cheeky bastard, but have a drink in my name.