Consumption as Commemoration

Cannibalism is one thing: at the very least, there is protein to be gained from eating your fellow human beings should your situation be dire enough, or your fetish strong enough. While still kinda gross, I can get behind cannibalism in as much as the bare bones idea behind it makes enough sense to me - in a gross way.

Let's switch gears...

I was spending a lovely Spring trip in Paris this past March with Courtney when she lets fly that when her mother and father pass away, the thought had crossed her mind that a sensible thing to do with their bodies, after cremation, was to consume them in a beverage as a form of commemoration. And if that wasn't - to me - disgusting enough, she then suggested that if I should die tomorrow, and she was looking for a way to mourn me, it would not be unthinkable for her to suggest to my parents that she be allowed to consume part of my ashes as well.

Now let's hold up for a second...

Firstly, I hope to be buried so that what's left of me can help enrich the soil around me, at least making the grass atop my grave lush and healthy and green for all the people who come to visit! So I have no interest in cremation. But secondly, and far more importantly, is the fact that I find the practice of consuming your relatives ashes rather comically disgusting. To be fair, Courtney's reasoning is similar to any defense of this I hear: that it's a supreme act of commemoration, one final chance to be close to the people you have lost through keeping them with you forever...Until you urinate...

Our friends weighed in on the debate. Julie e-mailed me a link to information about the Uape Indians of the Amazon who mix their dead relatives ashes with alcohol. This lead to a Sex and the City-type debate over the question: if your ashes were mixed into a cocktail for your friends to consume after you died, what cocktail would you be? And this same topic was the subject of a 2006 Japanese film entitled 12 Days, in which the lead, after having lost her partner, consumes her ashes in twelve smoothies over twelve days to mourn her passing. So the idea is not unprecedented, just a little creepy to me. Am I alone on this one? Is this just wierd to me?

And while I won't be drawing up my Final Will and Testament just yet, if I do, I might look into adding a clause or two against having my ashes consumed:

"Under no circumstances shall Courtney Jane Purdy Walker, or any other human being, cremate me for the pusposes of consuming my ashes in any beverage, alcoholic or otherwise."