Thursday, January 10, 2008

when i die, feed me to the buzzards

"And hey did you check this out?" Mamacita holds up a piece of mail with pic of a human corpse with no skin. "'BODIES...The Exhibition'. Looks pretty interesting." Werebrock's brow furrows. "The cadavers used in this exhibit are most likely from Falun Gong, peace-loving folk who have been tortured to death by the Chinese government." Mamacita opens her mouth, and sighs. "I did not know that. Gah."

Sigh=eloquently understated sob.

Buzzards deserve our bodies more than a system that turns scientific precision and methodology to such perverse, anti-social ends. I mean, when the PRC kills people and sells their bodies for American edutainment, how can you trust your hospitals to do right by your organic remains? Guess I'm jaded from being mistreated by the public health system of Amerikkka, but with something as symbolically important as death I don't trust anyone but the best. Hypothetically that could be anarchist, DIY, university-level free schools but we're not there yet, at least not in Cincinnati that I know of. For fuck's sake (the continuation of life, in a word) the Badge Man's new job is as a lab tech for a subcontractor for a federal Environmental Protection Agency subcontrator is only damage control! I be cleaning the beakers and hauling trash for people doing "bioremediation" research, where scientists study using other-than-human lifeforms to decompose synthesized environmental toxins. Though I be lovin' the job, on a societal level, let's not just playing rearguard. Utopia's now or never. What's your survivng community gonna do with your body if you unexpectedly give up the ghost?

No nefareous drugs will be developed from knowledge reaped from my corpse, while entropy will get slowed and bellies filed. As is the custom of New Agers, I give a plug for Tibetan culture- they hook their buzzards up through what's euphemistically called "sky burial". (Skip ahead to ≈7:40 to get to the procedure.) It's ironic that the peasants poisen their symbiotic decomposers from ignorance of new drugs they use in their farming, fortunately it's coming back around though. Just sprawl me out on a natural bridge in Daniel Boone National Forest, aight? My feathered friends will take care of the rest.

1 comment:

sharqi said...

American edutainment leaves much to be desired. It seems morally wrong for tortured bodies stripped of their skin to be displayed for Americans with too much money. But, hey, a buck is a buck, and as P.T. said, there's a sucker born every minute.

Agree about the buzzards. I'd much rather be fed to a buzzard than embalmed and left in a concrete lined box. What is up with us? Americans are consumed with death avoidance, and yet we're among the unhealthiest people. I don't know how the funeral industry continues to swindle people.

My mom requested she be buried and forget-me-nots planted above her. I think she said this flippantly as a romantic idea, and told someone else she thought I was grossed out by this idea. But I will have to look into green burials in our state. It would be nice to keep gramma around, nourishing the plants as they nourish us.