Daisy Chains and Corpses

Looking out over this beautiful land from my seat high above West Wales has made me think; the time really has arrived where burials ought to be faded out and cremations made compulsory. Land is running out and do we really need to still be sticking our dead under the ground in 2012? Its seems a very medieval practice to me, something we ought to have gotten rid of a long time ago.
I chose the USA because its a bigger country and in America alone they bury:

827,060 gallons of embalming fluid (formaldehyde).
180,544,000 pounds of steel (on coffins).
5,400,000 pounds of copper/bronze.
30 million foot of exotic woods.
3,272,000,000 pounds of reinforced concrete for vaults.
28,000,000 pounds of steel.

That is a heck of a lot of materials to be rotting away underground. Is it still necessary? Fine woods turned into fancy coffins, silk for shrouds, and lets not forget the heavy lump of marble carved with angels and flowers to top it all off. "Here Lies Joseph Blogs, Sadly Missed, RIP", it proudly proclaims to nobody in particular. To me this is more about vanity than any deep sense of rememberance and mourning.


Rest in peace?

Of course religion has its part in the 'Cremation Versus Burial' debate but the Eastern Orthodox ecumenical patriarch of Constantinople (what a mouthful that is) announced in 1961 ~
"There is no formal Orthodox rule against cremation, but there is a heavy weight of custom and sentiment in favor of Christian burial."
So there you go, no rule against it and cremation would quickly become the custom if we channeled our sentiments elsewhere. Othewise all our lands will be taken up by graveyards, there will be little room for anything else. The cemetery in my hometown (Burry Port) for instance is on a hillside and has some wonderful views of the Gower but its almost full. A few more plots and you would be visiting the dead in a cow field.
It is a quite a queer mind that actually likes the thought of burial. To have ones earthly remains sealed in a tiny box and left to slowly rot, fodder for soil dwelling creatures whilse the living world rolls on above. Im sorry but thats not for me, it sounds very grim and creepy. I know it won't matter when im dead but im alive now and can hand-on-heart tell you that I would never wish for burial.
In the modern world everything is being compacted and downsized. You no longer need shelves crammed with videogames, films and music, all of these can be downloaded via the internet and stored on computer files. Cremation offers the same thing. No more fields filled with bodies of the deceased, no more mawking 'poetry' etched onto headstones. Let the fires carry your loved off into the wild winds, let them be blown over blue waters and scatter on lush green pastures. That sounds much more appealing surely? Given the choice over this or being left stinking down a small hole I know where my vote falls.