Last Sunday our village
crematorium had a busy day. As many as three people from our village were
cremated. I was present at one of those cremations.
In Thailand, saying farewell
to someone after this life (actually cleaning up your packaging) is enclosed in
an enormous number of rituals. It is all so different from Western culture and
it is nice to be able to experience the differences without expressing any
judgment about them.
An article that I
recently read somewhere flashed through my mind. It was about your last
personal CO2 emissions. I had to laugh about it (again). Apparently, this
differs quite a bit from the choice you make to ultimately have yourself
buried, cremated or dissolved (‘resomation’ with a new nice word).
Cremation is the most
polluting form of saying goodbye to earthly existence, according to a study by
TNO (Netherlands Organization for Applied Scientific Research) from 2014 into
the environmental effects of burial or cremation. According to this institute,
an average cremation, at least in the Netherlands, means a CO2 emission of 208
kilograms, which is equivalent to a car journey from Amsterdam to Prague
(compared to 95 kilograms for burial and only 28 kilograms for dissolving). One
hundred kilograms of this can be attributed to combustion of the body and the coffin
with natural gas. The remainder is spent on the transport of the coffin from
the funeral home to the crematorium, and on the production of the urn.
Yes, you can make a study
about everything 😉.
Despite this
investigation, mu choice still is to go for cremation and not be locked up in
any urn. It will be selfish not to take this into account. After all, if the
entire current world population of more than 7,800,000,000 people would do
that, then a lot of affecting CO2 would enter the worldwide environment.
My preference before was
always burying, but when I see how often I have visited the graves of my two
grandpas and grandmas to find a "place to connect" of comfort… not
bitterly often. I guess I'm not alone. After a few generations, the visit is
over and maintenance and costs nobody remember anymore continues. And solving the
CO2 problem, even though it would be better for the environment, is not part of
my thoughts at all.
No, people who love me
(and who I love) just always keep a place very close in their (or me in my)
heart. And candles to connect, my experience, create miracles.
Gangey Gruma (Frans Captijn)
Captijn Insight. Catalyst in developing tranquility & in-sight to get in a sustainable way real connection, purpose, pleasure and flow in life, love, family, business, career and work again.
No comments:
Post a Comment