Simple Living with Wanda Urbanska

Wanda's Diary Entries

Sunday, April 12, 2009

A couple of weeks ago, my sister Jane and I had the privilege of hearing one of America’s foremost advocates of green burial, the writer Mark Harris, speak to a large, engaged audience at First Lutheran Church in Greensboro. Harris told us that in America today, cemeteries are less “bucolic resting grounds for the dead” than toxic dumps. The conventional body preparation and burial process is a grisly, resource-intensive practice that extracts bodily fluids from the deceased and pumps into the cadaver a formaldehyde-based formula for preservation. After the embalming, the corpse is dressed, made up, and laid out for public viewing. Then it’s placed into a casket, which is usually constructed of chemically treated wood and metal, which itself is secured in an outer liner. The whole process is meant to preserve the cadaver for as long as possible with neglible concern for the environmental impact on the land on which cemeteries are located. When this process is multiplied by the millions, the overall environmental impact is enormous, an infrequently mentioned culprit in our rapidly warming world.

I’ve long been aware of the terrible financial strain that the American way of death imposes on families. All but the most affluent among us are hit hard by the high cost of a conventional burial, including embalming, viewings, pricey coffins, headstone and the burial plot. A pricetag averaging around $10,000 is daunting to families — coming at a time when they’re least prepared to explore alternative arrangements or engage in financial negotiations. Many families are made to feel that the amount they spend on the deceased is somehow a reflection of the regard they had for that person, a public statement of their concern for the deceased, as well as an indicator of the family’s position in the world.

I had always assumed that cremation was the most eco-friendly (and lowest-cost) option. But in his presentation and book, “Grave Matters: A Journey Through the Modern Funeral Industry to a Natural Way of Burial” (Scribner: 2007), Harris makes it clear that a “natural burial” is superior to cremation (though cremation is better than a conventional burial). Natural green burial can involve a ritualistic cleaning and wrapping the body in a shroud, cloth or simple, untreated wooden (or cardboard) box and laying it into a shallow grave where the body can return to the elements that gave it life. It’s the way Americans were buried in the past.

The evening presentation and day-long workshop that followed were arranged by my friend of three decades, Holly Stevens, project leader for Undertaken With Love: A Home Funeral Guide for Congregations and Communities (hstevens@homefuneralmanual.org; www.homefuneralmanual.org). Holly has been living with cancer for one-third of her life. “I live with the assumption that if there is anything I want to accomplish with my life, it needs to be done on a six-month time frame,” she wrote me recently. The accomplishments she’s attained while battling and coping with cancer are many. Perhaps it’s the sense that she’s here on a short string that infuses her life with unbelievable energy, vitality and passion — something from which the rest of us can learn.

But I digress. When I received an email from Holly alerting me to this upcoming presentation, I put it on the calendar.

As always, I’m grateful that Holly called. Harris’s presentation motivated me to take action. I sat down and wrote a codicil into my own will, directing my executor to arrange a natural burial, if possible, or if not, opt for cremation. In no instance would I wish for a conventional burial.

Easter represents the ultimate celebration of death and resurrection. There is no better moment to consider our own passing, or the end of life of our loved ones, than on this delightful day of daffodils, tulips, chocolate bunnies and rebirth. With life comes death. Surely embracing natural burial alternatives can only help to bring nature closer, to bring it back into our lives.