the irreverence of my death

 - funerals.
the hushed silences,  the tailored undertakers,  the overpriced, overharvested wooden coffins
in this country, so many live on the very basics.  everything denied.  for so many the only party one often has is the one at the end of your life.  the one you can in no way enjoy.
you can't enjoy it not only because you are not there,  and even if you were there just viewing it you would not be able to enjoy it due to the fact that it is such a waste of money for the people you love and have tried your whole life to support now spending five years funding via sickening loans on your departure.  that is where you get recognised for being a human of value - when you are no longer there. 

the cheapest funeral that is not a paupers, comes in at R18 000 - and the weirdest thing is you have to go via the funeral parlour.  why is this - well it simply became a law when governments made it mandatory for certain companies to have the sole financial benefit of burying people.  so someone dies and immediately the right channels are put in place, the police are informed,  the banks are informed and your account immediately frozen - what a fucking cheek.  just when your family needs the money most, your account is closed because the government needs to ensure that they get their cut on it first.  your money going to the sharks and seemingly no one ever questions this.  and the funeral parlours put this all in place.  they are the penguins of death.

i always figured that your point of departure should follow your desire,  not some catalogued, outpriced, zero optioned ceremony.   growing up i aspired to an opheliasque kind of scene in which i would be sent down a river on a log raft covered with tons of petals, honeysuckle and rose (which would mean a winter death - but hey) -  and then the river would twist around a corner and someone would hit an explosive (organic and harmless of course) and that would be it.  just the sweet smell of burning flesh and singed blossoms.
now it has changed somewhat - just leave me out for the vultures.  put me in the veldt and bugger off and let these buzzards eat me.

please god don't let anyone stand over me at any point committing my soul to anyone on any plane.  please god don't let anyone say that my departure is a loss and a sadness.  please let us not mention jesus or his venegal father.  keep all gods out of it.  just avoid the parlours, wrap me in a carpet,  travel the distance required - hoist me out the boot and place me on the ground.  try and ensure that if my eyes were opened that i would be happy with the view.  i would definitely want to hear laughter,  i would definitely want some jokes directed at this way of being.  i would then want you to all bugger off and leave me on the earth as food,  as nourishment , as something rapidly disappearing.

and one day,  someone on earth  will remember me or recall me for the last time,  and then this memory will be completely extinguished.
why does this bring me such joy and peace?

i think funerals are such a total waste of money and resources.  wrap someone in a white cloth and place them on a pyre, and if they choose not to be burnt, wrap them in a cloth and bury them in the earth.  if there is no strong, solid box to slow the worms ability to get to you and consume you then you will quickly  cease to take up space.  and in however many years that would be, another body is placed in the hole - who cares - you won't be there to share your space anymore.  maybe just a skull or a few bones,  but who you are will not be there at all.

so enough of this bullshit.  death is a business.  death is something we are taught to fear.
for me death is the moment of liberation - how can i mourn or deny that.
let us live life so totally in every moment that we keep the universe entertained with the fullness of our roles we play.
let us be larger than life,  let our laughter dominate the streets,  let our joy fall onto others,
let us live to the full -  and when that is over , then let us die with irreverence and delight.
not having lost -   having only gained.   

Comments

Timster said…
I share your sentiments. Very well written and thought out. I don't know how it is there...but in the States, it's an even bigger business than you can imagine. There was a book written about it that although wasn't banned...is hard to lay your hand to. It is "The American Way Of Death", by Jessica Mitford...in case you haven't read it. Seems much of what she uncovered would even be relevant there. Great post!
nina said…
I am holding in my hands, located just for you, an amazing expensively designed brochure thick as an oil company's annual report, page after page of fill-in-the-blanks with answers re: client profile, financial information, parts one and two, additional financial assets, social security information, medical history, service attendees names, addresses, phone #'s and relationship, legacy information and how it is handled if the person this is all about keels over out of their country of citizenship.

what do you bet that hospices all over the world have stacks of these books at the door?
nina said…
But I'm like you Susu, I want none of that. It goes completely contrary to Nature's perfect system. Why would anyone want to have their body imprisoned indefinitely in a sealed coffin when the whole point is to break down quickly so one can rejoin with Nature and thus reincarnate? If you go for cloth, make sure the cloth is pure cotton or a totally natural material. I like the way they do it in Nepal, wash the body, have a ceremonial parade out to the place where the Avian bredren await the body. That leaves open the fabulous possiblity of flying.
nina said…
That was an excellent, beautiful post.
dublinmick said…
That is way we do it around here. The last two good friends I had that died, we had a party. The band was formed at there favorite bar, songs were played then everybody formed up again at his brother's house for more music and drinking. The next day his ashes were poured into matanzas inlet, his favorite swimming and fishing place near the ocean.

Both of them had the cheapest cremation that could be found. They had made it quite clear that is what they wanted long before hand.
su said…
timster.
i will look out for the title.
i imagine we have the exact same issues here, having imported lock stock and barrel the western way.

what a mockery - an american styled funeral in rural africa.
su said…
nina,

did they post you that incredibly expensive brochure?
the only things i get in the post are pink slips warning of electricity cuts.
since i sliced off the overdraft - no coloured pulp promoting the wanking wankers and their affiliates gets sent this way.
no medical aid, no insurance, no funeral plan, no nothing.

our hopsices here i discovered last night are campaigning against this whole price issue. due to aids and the amount of deaths one family will experience in a short time, they are pushing for cardboard coffins.
maybe i need to lend my voice to their campaign, or then again maybe i just need to go for a long walk.

yes, that fabulous possibility of flying.
imagine the last phase of life, slowly being excreted from great heights. ha ha - most appealing.
su said…
dublinmick,

sounds good.
my wake of sorts would contain the best cannabis cookies made with dates, seeds and nuts and then for those who want to join me on the other side for a short while some potent plant substances would have to be on offer. with some djembe drumming. and of course laughter.
Zoner said…
There would have to be music. Lots of joyous music.

Good thing we are eternal, otherwise I would have to go on about how much I would miss you, su.

Z
su said…
hey zoner,

thanks for that : )
just as well .......
brian said…
Buzzards or worms are best. Imagine all the fuel to burn all the human bodies. Wasteful in the extreme. Compost!

Post-mortem fame--having living people say your name and remember you--that notion never did much for me either, hahaha! Pretty thin!
bholanath said…
A lady artist here, to whom I taught drum for 5-6 years (starting in her 70s) in the 1990s, passed this year at 94. She painted a refrigerator box for herself, it was placed on a cart and wheeled down the aisle of the St. Francis de Asis Catholic church (priests wear white robes with huge Virgin of Guad on front) followed by the local white great pyrenees dog who attends all functions there. He walked through every row of pews to greet all the celebrators, stood next to the altar, then followed the 'casket' out.
Perhaps the best funeral I've ever seen.
Local Hindu woman friend was washed and covered with flowers by Pueblo Indian grandmothers, while we drummed and sang bhajans for 2 days around a 'dhuni' fire pit, passed the chalace, and eventually trucked her to a low-cost crematorium.
Have to say, I like the Nepali way as Nina mentioned. Lots of coyotes and raptors around here...

Beautiful piece, Su.
>respects<
su said…
i never know whether someone comments here and returns to see if there is a return comment.
it appears not but i will still reply.

brian - yeah speed up the decomposition, why not. why are we so into protecting rotten flesh.
maggots are the saviour of mankind.

bholonath - i got a very clear sketch in my mind of the celebrations you speak of. sounds, scent and visuals.

around here in the deeper mountains there are leopards - but they would not eat me - plenty of sparrow hawk, gosshawk, african harrier hawks, fish eagles, greater kestrils, black eagles. but none of them will eat a dead human. time to import some vultures.

vw. ectifil
bholanath said…
Yes, we return often to this sanctuary of sanity and beauty.
I misspoke, didn't mean to say 'raptors', rather the turkey vultures are plentiful here. One sailed so close to me on the dirt road yesterday her wing touched my car. Lovely.
dublinmick said…
SU you know what is strange, Garry Zeitlin formerly of the SETI project, to find life in space, showed up on my blog?

http://www.karmapolis.be/pipeline/interview_zeitlin_uk.htm

Dr. J.C. Chiappalone has been a visitor some lately?

So has the Zechariah Sitchin website.

Most likely as a result of this rant. I put this one together one night when I was really on roll with the guiness beer.

http://dublinmick.wordpress.com/2010/09/05/sitchin-and-the-disinformation-mill/
dublinmick said…
Looks like I wasn't too far off abut the tunnel, maybe crazy horse is right about the big light.

It might be time to wish upon a star!

http://dublinmick.wordpress.com/2010/06/24/dublinmicks-blogs-2/

There is still a ray of hope!

http://www.projectworldawareness.com/2010/10/terrifying-scientific-discovery-strange-emissions-by-sun-are-suddenly-mutating-matter/

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bj1AesMfIf8

Anyway if you see any more on Hermes and the hall of records let me know. I have a feeling that change of government in Egypt was prophetic.

I was never one to spout on about how the masses are going to take down molech and restore democracy. Couldn't see it happening. I talked to too many of them and looked into their eyes.

There is one thing about this radiation SU, it is equal opportunity and discriminates against no one.
su said…
I Got Kin



Plant

So that your own heart

Will grow.


Love

So God will think,


"Ahhhhhh,

I got kin in that body!

I should start inviting that soul over

For coffee and

Rolls."


Sing

Because this is a food

Our starving world

Needs.


Laugh

Because that is the purest

Sound.

HAFIZ
dublinmick said…
SU I didn't need any more proof but it looks like somebody has been pulling our leg again.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_XLJ6OVtF5s&feature=player_embedded#at=60
chickory said…
first, I apologize for not getting here sooner - i have been without a modem.

What a beautiful thoughtful post. I will commit this line to memory:

let us live life so totally in every moment that we keep the universe entertained with the fullness of our roles we play.

Having just come off the death and funeral of my Mother I have to concur with what you have written. Her coffin was at least the most plain one possible. We had bagpipes for the send off -that was pretty good if not celebratory.

You've said what this is: every aspect of human life has been commodified to profit some group or another. Lobbyists in every category have created a universe of mandates and regulations. Seems only victims of murder get a natural burial. I have heard, havent checked to see if this is true, that you can be buried in the cherokee national forest if you can have your body there within 24 hours of your death. You can be buried in cloth alone.

Im with you. but me on the raft with flowers and send a laming arrow to my pyre as i sail on out.


Thank you for your kind words on my blog. I cherish your visits.
Anonymous said…
And the relevance of our lives. Never zero, sometimes sweet.

Sea is near me. Wonder what the law says?

Best, turey.
su said…
ah chickory,
shanti, shanti, shanti.

turey,
yeah the sea is around you.
and you are around the sea.
love and then some more.
dublinmick said…
More on that hall of records SU. Elie over at crystal links says it is a frequency link similar to the ninth wave that everybody is going to move into here shortly. Maybe this Hermes tomb simply explains that.

I know Cayce also has talked about it being a spiritual place in the ether where all records of everything done here is kept. This is pretty interesting stuff.


http://www.crystalinks.com/hallofrecords.html
dublinmick said…
SU I always like that eye of God photo myself. I used to use it as an avatar on the google blog.
Anonymous said…
Funerals are a waste of money.

- Aangirfan
dublinmick said…
SU you have to read this, I just stumled on this tonight but damn it lays out what I have been trying to say. It is what the mayans have been trying to say, increased life force from the sun effects the pineal and circadian rhythm. More people take their lives because the construct of the world they thought they knew breaks down. Animals handle this much better than people. I suppose you could say the same about ayahusca or peyote. Some people go to pieces when they use it due to the false concepts they built up. Anyway take a look at this.

http://www.naturalhealthcareproducts.com/documents/Sun-Flares.pdf
Anonymous said…
hi su just came to your blog now browsing through. well if you in s.a why dont you check out how moslems bury their dead, exactly how you explaine. washed, white calico, bury. most of the time if you cant afford it the community will foot the bill. I cant understand christians pay(yes its hashed from them) tithe, but no church would offer the above at least. so a rich moslem and a poor moslem gets buried the same. no waste of money that is for the people left behind.

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