After Death -- A return to Mother Earth
I want to talk about a subject that has been sanitized out of our American lives. Death.
Think back to what you know of previous generations; where elders lived out their lives in family homes, walking the steps of a deteriorating body to the end of their lives, often dying in their own beds. The family was called upon to care for those who could no longer care for themselves and they were intimately aware of the fact that a transition was going to occur. They were involved in the process of the death; it was part of the cycle.
But somewhere along the line June Cleaver ("Leave it to Beaver's" mother) came along and told us that everything in our lives should be sparkling clean and easy as a summer breeze; and if it wasn't we should hire someone to take care of it for us.
So now in the U.S., as well as other industrialized countries, as a person ages or becomes sickly they are increasingly ostracized out of society and into the institutions whose mandate it is to sweep up this mess of illness and death. Nursing homes and hospitals take the end of life process away from our direct experience. We are no longer involved in the death of a fellow human as an event of our lives, but as something played out behind the seafoam green and white memories of sanitized hospital rooms and nurses in starched white. We experience our true grief through the performances of the ER doctors on NBC. We no longer understand death from our own experience.
And it is inherent in human nature to fear that which we do not know and understand. So when death occurs, handing over the ritual and remains to a funeral director becomes easy. Limiting our choices to a coffin color and cuff links becomes a relief. Reassurances of the scripting of a memorial service that has been played out a million times before is satisfying in the confusion. And the loss and emptiness are attributed solely to the passing of our friend with little thought to how ritual used to be designed to involve us in the process of death as a powerful aspect of life.
These are the psychological factors that have allowed the hospital, nursing home, funeral and cemetery industries to become such economic and pseudo-spiritual powerhouses in the U.S.. And with that the control of ritual and remembrance has been taken out of our hands by the professionals that sell us Funeral Package A, B or C. From all of this misconceptions abound, that are difficult to change.
For instance did you know that in most states and in most cases:
• all you need is the signature of a funeral director or other official to transport the body of a deceased from a hospital and conduct your own funeral services.
• with the proper paperwork you can bury a body on private property or conduct your own cremation.
• a body does not have to be embalmed if it is buried within 48 hours; and that
• you are not required by law to have a concrete grave liner (cemeteries insist on them so that sinkholes will not be created as bodies return naturally to the earth).
(You must check with local county and township laws as well as State laws regarding these issues &emdash; for more information visit the Michigan Funeral Directors Association at <http://www.mfda.org>.)
As an environmentalist it is the ultimate sin to place my body in a metal casket behind a concrete grave liner after burial. I used to believe that cremation was the best option &emdash; but the level of carbon monoxide and other noxious gases given off from a body that has been embalmed and then burned in a container made out of human-made fibers and chemicals has rendered that option as ineffective as the metal coffin with the satin pillow. What I want is for my body to return to the earth and nourish the ground I now walk on. I want my grave marker to be an oak tree that grows strong from the dust of my bones. I want to reclaim control over the disposition of my body when my soul passes on. In order to do that I need to make some decisions and do the research in the here and now.
The U.K. is far ahead of the States in the race to regain control over the industry of death. The Natural Death Centre <http://www.newciv.org/worldtrans/naturaldeath.html> was created in 1994 in a effort to educate people about their options over dying, funerals and burial. They have published several books and worked in connection with others to establish green burial cemeteries throughout England, Scotland and Wales. Individuals are entombed in newly planted forests or deep below farmer's fields in simple cardboard caskets or muslin shrouds.
Voices are just starting to be raised in support of similar ideas and options in the United States. But we are fighting a monster in a maze. Burial laws vary not only state by state, but county by county and sometimes by township. Getting clear information about burial laws is not therefore easy. Funeral directors hold the keys of information and the lawful mandate, and I doubt they are willing to share the information that might ultimately cost them business. Land that contains grave sites decreases in resale value and cardboard coffins are not marketed and sold through Home Depots or WalMart. Add to this the fact that we often don't think about these details until they are on us and the decision is imminent and you will soon see how our options become quickly limited.
But the work is beginning. On the national level, I am working with a group from California called Reclaiming on a web site and online list discussion that may begin to cut through the maze. We would like to form a national network of individuals who are willing to spend some time doing the research and then answering questions for those that are interested in burial options. Locally, Sally Van Vleck and I hope to set up a meeting or two in the fall to start the dialogue on what we need to do in this area to make sure we all have the option of a green burial. Please call one of us if you are interested in joining this discussion.
Hopefully, the momentum and interest will build on all levels so that we can focus on education and making the legislative changes necessary so that more people can utilize the option of a green burial - returning a body to the Earth after the soul has passed on. I feel this is the first step to unpeeling the layers that have separated us from the process of death that is such an important part of our lives.
If you would like to become involved in this project please visit the web site at: <http://www.reclaiming.org/cauldron/dying/greenburial.htm> or call Diana Green at 933-3301 or Sally Van Vleck at the Neahtawanta Center at 223-7315.
Bibliography of Web Sites and books:
http://www.mfda.org -- Michigan Funeral Directors Association, they have an FAQ about burial laws.http://www.newciv.org/worldtrans/naturaldeath.html -- The Natural Death Centre in the U.K. that is working on the issue of green burial.
http://www.reclaiming.org/cauldron/dying/greenburial.htm -- My page to begin a national network of people interested in acting on the issue of green burial.
http://www.volcano.net/~johnstone/caskhome.html -- a source for plans to make your own cardboard coffin
http://dspace.dial.pipex.com/town/square/ac026/ndcusa.html -- Natural Death Care Project, California
The Pagan Book of Living and Dying by Starhawk, M. Macha Nightmare and members of the Reclaiming Collective -- published by Harper and Collins&emdash;you don't have to be a Pagan to appreciate this book. It demonstrates the need for ritual to heal us when a death occurs and one story in particular shows how a small community of people took significant steps towards the healing process after a suicide by taking the funeral process into their own hands. Available at Higher Self bookstore in Traverse or any major bookstore.
New Natural Death Handbook--I have not read this one yet, but it has been recommended to me. It deals with the green burial movement in the U.K. but can provide us a model to work on our own green burial issues in the U.S.. You can order this and several other books relating to the same topic from the Natural Death Centre in England (see above).
Return to the Index of Synapse 44, Summer 1998