Ceremony, Death, Memory--personal thoughts

Funeral in the rain. My sister's oldest child... driving home, the rain on the windows of the car, half asleep... what I was thinking...

When I've been asked by my sons what I might want done with the post-death waste, I've always said--whatever seems right to the living--I won't be there to give a damn! And let it go at that. But having time to run the question through again... maybe there's more to say. Maybe it does matter. Now. If not then.

First off--disposal of the body is a technical problem. This doesn't concern me. To be accomplished in the most environmentally sensible and cheapest way possible. I don't care now, and won't be there to care then.
Cremation ain't cheap. forget it. Unless you can sneak the waste into an incinerator on the sly.

Funerals... if I were to die in present circumstances... telling stories and reading poems and drinking wine on the roof of the Ox sounds about right... An empty city lot would be super --especially if there were plans to turn it into a community garden, but only if it's ok to read poems and drink wine there.& NO MOWED GRASS OR ENGLISH FUCKING IVY! .. no place with fluorescent lights, nice furniture or god help us--vinyl or imitation wood laminate. .

and though there seems not be any plots open in Summit Township Cemetery (see the photo above), there is a space left between the stones... and some suitable found object... a bit of rubble from a razed building (say several bricks still mortared together from a wall), a small section of rusted steel I-beam, an object of fused bottles and cans... stuff like that... placed in the site (with notice of what it was and some contribution for maintenance so it wouldn't be removed)... that kinda touches my heart. Maybe I'll make something like that--in lieu of cliche tombstone.

"Odd" is my home in this world... in or out of it. Taken me a long time to find my comfort level... how I want to be remembered