“Cradle to grave” means many things. Here it means green life gives way to green death.
Six Feet Under, or SFU to its fans, was a groundbreaking drama on HBO for five award-winning seasons. I came to the show late and ending up watching the first four seasons on dvd from Netflix, then waiting for the 5th season to come out on dvd since I didn’t have HBO or a dvr at the time either.
I bring this up because I was struck with a strong plot flashback when reading Dying without killing the Earth online today via The Seattle Times web site. The character Lisa Kimmel Fisher, played by Lili Taylor, was from Seattle, an “earth mother” hippy type, always shopping at Whole Foods and caring greatly about the earth and the environment. I appreciated her character on the show since it portrayed the green lifestyle a few years before green was so popular. It was a mystery for a long time what happened to her, her disappearance, later finding her body – and Nate, played by Peter Krause, going to great lengths to honor her wishes for an “ecoburial”. He had to sneak out to the woods late at night and dig her grave himself. There was some humor thrown in to lighten the moment, but this show is beyond description so I won’t go any further than that. Except you should watch it. It’s available on Netflix.
Eternal Reefs is another way to go. There is mention of it in a related article. This is my personal choice. I learned of ER several years ago and recently learned, after pestering them for a long time, that there are plans for memorial reefs off the West coast as well. See, I was meant to be an oceanographer. But when I tried diving at Underwater Sports as a freshman at the University of Washington School of Oceanography, my inborn fear of the water kept me from being able to stay under. They recommended private lessons, hypnotherapy and lots of counseling to be able to overcome my fear and learn to dive. Of course, at the age of 18, with little money, that wasn’t going to happen and eventually I quit classes and joined the military (only to be sent home with a bad knee – and thus began my career in property management and real estate).
So the only way I am going to be able to see the fabulous underwater world and study those beautiful fish and the reef world is to BECOME part of a reef.
GPS will be the only way to locate your remains under either method. Funny, that’s also how I find real estate these days!
Additional Resources
Want to take your green attitude all the way to the grave? (Ideal Bite)
Forest of Memories Resources and Information Supporting Eco Burial in North America
Eco-Friendly Burial Sites Give a Chance to Be Green Forever
WorldChanging.com Cradle to Grave
Life cycle assessment (cradle to grave concept) on Wikipedia