© Opinions the other press Kali thurber e opinionsubmit@hotmail.com November 19, 2003 Death—An Unused Resource Kali Thurber Opinions Editor Human beings have difficulty dealing with the death of a loved one—so_.much, that this state- ment is a cliché on its own. But what often goes forgotten in the crisis of death, is the soil. That’s right, somebody in your family dies, and I want to discuss soil: Morbid? Maybe, but it all depends on your perspective. As it is now, when someone dies, along with the usual stress of the loss, there is the funeral to think of. Funeral services are extremely costly, and there are few ways around the expenses. Funeral service providers are there to make you spend more. Sure, they present themselves under the guise of caring individ- uals who only wish to make your life, and adjustment in the death of your family member, easier. But they are trained in selling, and that is what they intend on doing. Just as the sales associate at your favourite swimwear store is paid to tell you that your ass doesn’t look humongous in that string bikini, the casket retailers are paid to enforce guilt for not buying a more expensive casket. When under the amount of stress that people naturally are in this situation, they are the easiest targets for up-selling. “Oh, you don't have enough money for the $3000 casket? But wouldn't Harry want to rest in peace in the glorious —_casket-of-the- moment?” And the sweet relative sadly nods, not because they are agreeing, but because they prob- ably have no idea what Harry would have really wanted for a funeral service, and decide agree- ing with the funeral service provider is the easiest thing to do. After all, this is their job— they must know the most appro- priate casket for the situation. Yes, after all, this is their job. And it is also their job to tell you that, on top of the outrageous casket expense, you will need to purchase a burial vault, to pro- tect the casket from the outside elements. Which brings me back to the point, and the major problem with the funeral service industry (and yes, it is an industry). Why do we bury our dead in boxes? I’m told that it is a legal thing, really. But I just don’t understand it. Human bodies are organic matter, and therefore, should be returned to the earth to provide nourishment to the soil. By disal- lowing the burying of the dead without a casket, we have essen- tially taken ourselves out of the food chain. The worms do not get the chance to feed off our nutritious bodies, and thus, the soil doesn’t get the rich source of nutrients from the worm shit. And what’s wrong with the idea of human bodies rotting back into the soil that they once lived on? I'll tell you that there is noth- ing wrong with it, and further- more, that it is a morally anthro- pocentric point of view that RI allows us to believe our dead bodies don’t belong to the earth. I wonder if it wasn’t the funer- al service industry that pushed this burial norm into Western society. In an effort to gather information on funerals for this article, I came across an interest- ing site. Funeraldepot.com, (located at