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Discussion » Questions » Life and Society » What would you want buried with you so you could use it in the afterlife?

What would you want buried with you so you could use it in the afterlife?

Throughout the millenia, different cultures have believed in different kinds of afterlives. Some would ensure their relatives were buried with all the items they would need.

Posted - January 31, 2019

Responses


  • 44178
    My snuggly pillow. A case of 18 year old single malt Scotch
      January 31, 2019 5:36 PM MST
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  • The bathrobe my daughter gave me years ago.  I have never worn it, but I love to sleep with it.  It is thick and adds warmth when I am cold without having to add an entire blanket, and in summer I cover myself with it when it's too hot for my sheet and comforter.  I have never not slept with it since she bought for me about 6 years ago, even when I was in the hospital.
      January 31, 2019 5:42 PM MST
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  • 14795
    I came into this world with nothing and will be leaving with just the same I'm sure.....  :) 
      January 31, 2019 5:57 PM MST
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  • 5391
    It is fair to say that “taking it with you” has been adequately debunked. I present the case of King Tut.
    I have lots of stuff, I will take none of it beyond this life. 
    Let me suggest that burying something with you will only serve the purpose of preventing others from having it. Ever. 

    A serious examination of our ill-advised practice of sticking countless millions of human corpses into (fancy) boxes to plant in sprawling cemetaries (in perpetuity, no less) reveals the whole enterprise as a ritual of prolific waste. This post was edited by Don Barzini at February 1, 2019 1:36 PM MST
      January 31, 2019 7:06 PM MST
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  • 4631
    I thought the question might invoke some humour.

    It is a crazy practice - the use of valuable land to fill vast necropoli.

    But I don't think we have found an adequate solution for dealing with dead bodies yet. Cremation is incredibly costly in energy and puts a disproportionate amount of CO2 into the atmosphere. 

    Many people don't know that cremated ashes have an excess of sodium which causes deficiencies in essential nutrients in the soil, rendering it infertile. Human ashes also damage the fish and vegetation in rivers, lakes and coastlines in spots where many are attracted to throw their ashes. Also they are very high in calcium. If spread on soils, they change the pH of the soil - can be okay if used very sparingly on an already alkaline soil.

    I would like to be buried on my own land, no placque or marker, just in a shroud, and have an avocado tree planted on top of me. This post was edited by inky at June 2, 2020 6:29 AM MDT
      February 1, 2019 1:47 PM MST
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  • 5391
    My initial response to your question was humor, but the more I considered it, the less humor I found in it. As a combat vet, death is seldom a subject of levity for me. So kudos for at least seeding the process. 

    Something occurred to me about your poignant points on the chemical sins of cremation. It is still a truism that most living things either die by being eaten by something else, or their bodies are consumed post mortem. Not us, though. We’ve removed our kind from the so-called Circle of Life. “Vast necropoli“ are the residual products of that.   

    We recently lost my father in law, who was laid to rest in a Veteran’s cemetery. I was given pause to observe the thousands of graves there, and contemplate how each little box of air and human remains (and untold heartfelt mementos) will be “down there” for something on the order of millions of years. What becomes of those grounds 500, 1000, 5000 years from now? 
     It’s disturbing. 
      February 1, 2019 2:52 PM MST
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  • 628
    Hello Don Barzini..
    That is a very significant point of discussion, the vast, I feel wasted land that has been dedicated to mans vanity and need for immortality, even if that immortality only lives through a headstone.
    The connection I have to loved ones who have passed is not found at a gravesite, I find it in my heart and in my memories. My Grandfather was a great influence in my life. He passed before my children were born, but my children are well aware of the importance he held in my life, they know his history and they have heard countless stories of his life, stories they will tell their children I am sure. That, to me is immortality, What he was still lives some 3 generations later. We do not need a marker to know this.
    In the bay Area, where I live, there is a town called Colma ( an area of South San Francisco). This towns 'claim to fame' is that it contains more dead people than living persons. It has a graveyard for every Nationality and religion, there are even some large pet cemeteries.
    There was a great little Golf course there, woven between many cemeteries. It was a par 72 consisting of 9 holes with different tee box's.
    So you would play the same hole on the 1st and the 10th but with the tee box layout, they played differently. After a time the cemeteries started to encroach on the course, so par 5's became par 4's, everything else became par 3's. This continued until the course completely closed and now the entire property is composed of grave sites.
    For me, clearly the city had its priorities a bit skewed..I liked the golf course much better..


      February 1, 2019 6:02 PM MST
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  • 5391
    Yes, Designer, man’s vanity. The source of so many of the world's ills. The gift that keeps on giving. 
    I make no secret of my unabashed atheism, to me, the premise of preserving our remains in earthly graves to await a “call to the afterlife“ is the pinnacle of human vanity.  

      February 1, 2019 7:33 PM MST
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  • 10037
    I'm not going to be buried, but hypothetically, I'd take my camera. 
      January 31, 2019 8:38 PM MST
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  • 4631
    Hey! Hypothetically, wouldn't it be astounding if we could take photos of the afterlife and send them back across the divide for the living to see?
    How might proof change the way people behave?
      February 1, 2019 1:35 PM MST
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  • 10037
    There should be an app for that! ;P


      February 4, 2019 9:42 AM MST
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  • 628
    Hello there Nom de Plume
    I don't believe in an 'after-life', this life is good enough for me and the fact that it is fleeting makes life so much more precious.
    I wont be buried, I will cremated and my ashes spread on my property.
    Everything I have will be for the benefit of my children after I m gone. I will not be needing it, but it could help them.
    My hope is they sell the property and use the proceeds to live their dreams.
      January 31, 2019 8:39 PM MST
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  • 4631
    As it happens, I don't believe in any kind of afterlife either - but I thought it would be a fun thing to speculate on.
    I agree that the only real afterlife is this physical world here and now, which continues after we have died.

    If I remember correctly, you have worked hard and earned and created a great lifestyle in a beautiful environment.
    I imagine your kids will do very well as a result of what they learned from you and what you bequeath them.
      February 1, 2019 1:33 PM MST
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  • nintendo switch and my husband 
      January 31, 2019 8:40 PM MST
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  • 4631
    Sounds like you enjoy the life you have - congratulations - not many achieve that! :)
      February 1, 2019 1:27 PM MST
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  • 10453
    All the dog toys from all the dogs I had in my life time then all those dogs and I will spend eternity playing fetch. Cheers!
      February 1, 2019 4:23 PM MST
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  • Why take any chances:)

      February 1, 2019 4:46 PM MST
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  • 52906

     

      Nothing. 

    ~

      June 2, 2020 6:31 AM MDT
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