Re: 31/10/2011 world population will be 7 billion
 

My dad has a nice warm chair at the side of him:D:D:D

---------- Post added at 20:05 ---------- Previous post was at 20:04 ----------

Yes you will either become worm food or dust:erm:

Re: 31/10/2011 world population will be 7 billion
 

A very apt description of things devil.:D

Re: 31/10/2011 world population will be 7 billion
 

I've been to a good few funerals but IIRC only three of them were burials; 7 or 8 were cremations. It does seem to be more popular now.

I have always thought like you, cremate me, once I'm gone nobody needs my body hanging around. However I think I'm beginning to reappraise my views on this. As a society we have hidden death in a corner. Cremation is very clean and leaves you with little or nothing afterwards. We are in danger of losing the valuable role graveyards can play in our society. They connect us to the past and hint at the real lives of ordinary people. I think we have become far too individualistic and we need to look for as many ways as we can to maintain the sense of shared past, present and future. A proper reminder of our ancestors, via their presence in our local cemetery, would do no harm.

Re: 31/10/2011 world population will be 7 billion
 

As it happens, there's a graveyard right outside my house. As in: when I look out my front window, there's a graveyard. Leaving aside the aesthetics of the place (it's great despite initial misgivings. Instead of houses, I have a lot of green and oldish tombstones outside my front window), I can relate to what you say. I walk through the graveyard nearly daily on my way to the shops.

It's interesting. Dates on stones go back to late 19th century, there's mass graves for the poor, tiny little stones for babies, and lots of people buried alongside their spouse/family members. I like the graveyard. It does give the 'connect' you mention.

Re: 31/10/2011 world population will be 7 billion
 

I'm glad it's not just me ... :)

The children in our local primary school are always amazed the first time they're told that the former headteacher of the school is buried in the churchyard next door. Again, there's some sort of connection that happens, a sense of continuity. Then as you say there are the stories. I hadn't realised until this summer just past, when I took a proper look around that churchyard, that there is a section given over to WW2 graves. There are a dozen or more, mostly from the first couple of years of the war IIRC. Somehow seeing them there made it more real than any cenotaph I've ever stood in front of. And they are obviously still being tended - the churchyard is well cared for but these displayed a level of care well beyond the norm.

If we eventually all end up being cremated, will our next generation lose all sense of where they came from?

Anyway, I think we're topic-drifting ...

Re: 31/10/2011 world population will be 7 billion
 

My father-in-law was cremated, and when we recieved the ashes, we had a family gathering (people came from all over the country) and walked his favourite walk (along the Chevin, overlooking Otley, Wharfedale, and the River Wharfe), and we then scattered his ashes from the highest point* - that place is now his memorial to us all.

In fact, we did the same with our dog Benji's ashes, as he spent so much time there with his grandad and us - now, everytime we go there, we think of them both.

*we did check there were no rock-climbers / abseilers below us at the time.

Re: 31/10/2011 world population will be 7 billion
 

I'm not denying that cremation can be done in a way that helps the surviving relatives to commemorate the life of a lost loved one. But what about 50 or 100 years from now?

Re: 31/10/2011 world population will be 7 billion
 

Personally l will get cremated but one thing that we have to remember is that we are running out of burial plots and we might not have a choice sometime in the future.

Re: 31/10/2011 world population will be 7 billion
 

There is the option of a columbarium. Perhaps not quite the same, but it does preserve the connection?

Re: 31/10/2011 world population will be 7 billion
 

When my grand dad was cremated, there was a small stone cross put in a graveyard with his name on it (essentially a tomb stone) And a metal plaque put on a tree with his name and his date of birth/death.

I think id rather go and stand near a tree then surrounded by thousands of graves and people mourning if i ever felt the need to visit :)

Re: 31/10/2011 world population will be 7 billion
 

Not long now

Re: 31/10/2011 world population will be 7 billion
 

Roll on 7 billion...

Just think, we're largely made of carbon so more people alive locks up more of that nasty global warming stuff.

If you fall for that tax-raising flannel anyway..

Re: 31/10/2011 world population will be 7 billion
 

Unfortunately, we aren't made of carbon monoxide, which is the 'tax-raising stuff' as you put it.

Re: 31/10/2011 world population will be 7 billion
 

I wonder how much increased medical care has helped push the number up. Makes you wonder if we're being counter-productive by attempting to cure many diseases...