After interviewing a few people, I realized myself agreeing (or at least understanding) with most of the answers I received. Maybe its because we were close in age, and that affects our perceptions and ideas on death and our bodies. The first person I interviewed wanted a party for her funeral, so its not depressing. She was still indecisive about how she wanted her body to be physically taken care of. Her experiences close people passing away has made her less afraid of death and made her cherish every moment with those she loves. Though she is not heavily religious, she has mentioned the obvious social norm of a funeral if the body is not cremated.
The second interviewee was very clear on what he wanted. He wanted to be cremated and showed that he wants to avoid anything exspensive. He also mentioned it would save more space. The only death he has experienced of was of his great grandmother which was when he was really young, so he said that he is not really affected by it. It's something he should think about though, because his other relatives are getting very old as well. When I asked him what he thought would happen after death, he said nothing. And, even if something did happen we'll never know until we die and our main concerns should be about life.
The third interviewee was actually pretty simple. She just mentioned that she would like a funeral when she dies. She dosn't really think about death or how she wants her body to be taken care of. She dosn't know what will happen when we're dead, but when we do 'there will be answers to everything.' She is not heavily affected by death and she is not afraid of death if it is by age. She only fears death if it was something unpredictable, like an accident.
I noticed that at this age, its hard to make a decision about how our bodies should be dealt at death-its not something we would think of so early in our lives. Funerals were a common answer to how our bodies should be taken care of, but that was predictable. I noticed the two choices of being buried or being cremated and that's a deicison thats hard to pick. I found it interesting that one of my interviewee's was sure that he wanted to be cremated. His ideas goes hand in hand with mines because I agree. Though a burial seems more fancy, I don't want people spending so much money after I die. I agree with the social norm of having a funeral but instead it really should be less depressing than it has to.
From Mom:
ReplyDeleteI found your post a very interesting read. Even for me, I don't know exactly how I want my body to be treated after death so it makes sense that teenagers and young adults are indecisive about these choices. I found this line insightful, "After interviewing a few people, I realized myself agreeing (or at least understanding) with most of the answers I received. Maybe its because we were close in age, and that affects our perceptions and ideas on death and our bodies." I agree that age does have an affect on how we perceive death or how much we think about it.
Your post was very interesting because I also agree that a social norm in our society is that funerals should be depressing but if everyone is going to die one day death should not be something we mourn. I have not decided how I want to die because it's difficult to decide if I would like to be cremated or donate my organs but hopefully by the end of this unit I will decide. A question I have for you is: Do you think religion is the only determining factor for the way we want to die?
ReplyDeleteI really enjoyed reading this post, particularly because you were able to find three relatively different opinions, and your post also introduced a factor of caring for the dead that I had never really thought about before, which is cost. Now that I think about it, the casket's in which most people are buried are probably pretty expensive, which just adds to my list of reasons why I am thinking of choosing cremation over burial as well. Overall, this post did a good job of getting me thinking. One question- Have you ever confronted someone who has experienced or thought about other ways of caring for the dead besides cremation and burial?
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