http://www.slate.com/id/2211395/?gt1=38001

i have always wanted to be buried really shallowly, and then a sapling planted on top, so that effectively my mortal remains become a tree

but i could settle for that "liquification for garden plants" option mentioned in the article.

I want to be air buried in Discovery park.

Barring that I want my friends to seize a billionaires yacht in the Ballard Locks pirate style and give me a Viking funeral.

I've often thought that if I knew when I was going to go I'd go up to the Sol Duc falls and sit on the rock in the middle and, eventually, just roll off into the water.  Feed the Ravens, Bears, Raccoons and Salmon.  Of course that would probably involve suicide and I left those impulses behind with my 30's.

Seriously I've discussed it with my brother/roommate and we agree that it is the problem of whichever of us is left behind.  I mean if I'm dead what difference does it make to me?  So, probably, donate to science &/or medicine (or maybe a freak show!)  Least fuss, least cost.

I had the 'talk' with my dad this past summer. It wasn't too hard for me. One thing I have learned in my life is that anything I'm dreading is almost certainly worse in the consideration than it is in the execution so I might as well do it and get it over with.

What we do before our loved ones die is, or should be, for them. After they're gone it's for those of us who are still alive.

Again, 1mamcwmo

"It's not so bad as long as you can keep the fear from your mind." - D. Cooper

"I must not fear. Fear is the mind killer." - P. Atreides

"Whoever can see through all fear will always be safe" - L. tzu

I plan to be wrapped in a shroud and buried underneath one of the old oak trees on our land.  Lisa Carlson's book *Caring For the Dead:  Your Final Act of Love* is a terrific place to start when getting ready to reclaim the care of our dead. She tells many stories of people's experiences, as well as giving information on funeral law for the consumer.

I loved on Six Feet Under, how Nate wants to change the business from formaldehyde and expensive coffins to green funerals.  Nate's funeral, for me, is about as eco-friendly as it gets.  

Then I also think of the scene from Last Tango In Paris, Brando sitting beside the bed of his dead wife, laid out by her mother.  How important it is to have the space and time to come to terms with the passing. Or to do the readings from the Tibetan Book of the Dead.  It's about choice.  We don't have to go the funeral home route.  

What they don't tell you is that they move the bodies all the time to make room or add someone to a plot. Only the headstones are really left in the same place. The re-digging is done with a backhoe. And it's rare to go six feet. In fact, the people who have to move the bodies don't know how deep a grave is, so the backhoe regularly opens coffins. It's a real mess. Even if it was a direct burial, with no embalming, with all the preservatives in peoples' diets, no one decays too fast anymore.

It's an act of flamboyant self-importance to be buried-- unless it's on your land, of course. No one is going to respect your remains at a funeral home, no matter what your family pays. I'm not into laws, but I really think burial should be illegal.