Links of interest: Funerals, cremations, wakes

Chronicle of a Death We Can’t Accept (The New York Times)

[A]s a society, Americans are no longer sure what to do with our dead. … Today … our death rituals have become downsized, inwardly directed, static and, as a result, spiritually and culturally impoverished. … At upbeat, open-mike “celebrations of life,” former coaches, neighbors and relatives amuse us with stories and naïvely declare that the dead, who are usually nowhere to be seen and have nowhere to go, will nevertheless live always in our memories. Funerals, which once made confident public pilgrimage through town to the graveyard, now tread lightly across the tiny tableau of our psyches. …

For the first time in history, the actual presence of the dead at their own funerals has become optional, even undesirable, lest the body break the illusion of a cloudless celebration, spoil the meditative mood and reveal the truths about grief, life and death that our thinned-out ceremonies cannot bear. … [W]e will be healthier as a society when we do not need to pretend that the dead have been transformed into beautiful memory pictures, Facebook pages or costume jewelry, but can instead honor them by carrying their bodies with sad but reverent hope to the place of farewell.

Army preserves items of remembrance at Section 60, Arlington’s place for Iraq, Afghan war dead (Associated Press)

Unlike the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Wall, where the National Park Service collects and stores such objects daily, Arlington is a working military cemetery with strict rules to keep it pristine. Because there were no collection procedures in place, most of the items left at grave sites simply ended up in the trash.

That changed in the early fall when the U.S. Army Center of Military History at Fort McNair in Washington quietly stepped in at the request of then-Army Secretary Pete Geren. Now, each Thursday, typically three curators in dark jackets carrying cameras walk through Section 60 to collect and catalog nonperishable objects left at the graves.

Arlington changes policy on grave site mementos (Salon)

To read the AP article, it would seem the Army just suddenly decided to care about Section 60. … That’s not the whole truth. In July, Salon began reporting on management problems at Arlington, which led to a sweeping inspector general investigation. In the very first story package, we zeroed in on Section 60. One article showed how, to the chagrin of family members, the Army was throwing away almost all of the photos, cards, letters, medals, artwork and other mementos left there, unlike similar mementos left at the Vietnam Veterans Memorial.

Another Sign of the Recession — Cremation on the Rise (CBS News)

“These are tough economic times,” said National Funeral Directors Association (NFDA) spokesperson Jessica Koth, “and what we are hearing from our members is that more and more families are opting for cremation” as a low-cost alternative to a traditional burial.

Cremations on the rise in county, mirrors U.S. trend (Kenosha News)

The Cremation Association of North America, headquartered in Chicago, noted 15 percent of funerals in 1985 included cremation. That has grown to an estimated 35 percent in 2008 and is projected to reach 55.6 percent, or 1.7 million, by 2025.

The group anticipates the jump because cremations are becoming more acceptable; environmental concerns are growing in importance; people are more educated, and they, along with the wealthy, tend to favor cremation; ties to tradition are weakening, and religious restrictions are easing.

Kent Bottles: Conflict and Tension Due to Boomers, Gen Xers, and Gen Yers Working Together in Health Care ( ICSI Health Care Blog)

Dr. Layne Longfellow … also noted that he has spoken to mortician groups who say that the number of Americans choosing cremation is rising, as many do not feel any special relationship to any one geographic area of the country.

Indigent Burials Are on the Rise (The New York Times)

Coroners and medical examiners across the country are reporting spikes in the number of unclaimed bodies and indigent burials, with states, counties and private funeral homes having to foot the bill when families cannot. … Oregon, for example, has seen a 50 percent increase in the number of unclaimed bodies over the past few years, the majority left by families who say they cannot afford services.

Puerto Rican funeral home presents shooting victim on his motorcycle (autoblog)

Instead of the traditional presentation of the body in a casket, Mr. Colón’s corpse, dressed in casual duds and sunglasses, was instead posed in a very lifelike position atop his Repsol-liveried Honda CBR600 F4. According to Puerto Rico’s Primera Hora newspaper, the motorcycle was given to the victim by his uncle, and upon Mr. Colón’s untimely demise, family members delivered the bike to the funeral home specifically for this unusual wake.

For the non-squeamish, there’s video footage of the wake on YouTube. I say “squeamish” because there are close ups of the body.

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Photo source: autoblog (photo courtesy of Primera Hora)