Ashes to ashes, dust to... cardboard?

Fri, May 16 2008

— Minnesotans — conservative lot that we are — may not be ready for bare-bones funerals just yet.
But if it’s true that trend winds blow eastward, then stay tuned.
Eco-friendly “green” funerals are gaining something of a toehold in California, where people are availing themselves of modest caskets, no embalming, do-it-yourself services and burials in tombstone-free nature preserves.
It’s a back-to-the-future movement of sorts, hearkening to an era when funerals were held in homes, and burials were in the meadow yonder.
Don’t want to spend thousands of dollars on a casket? Cardboardcasket.com has a deal for you. Their low-end biodegradable model goes for $49.95.
Don’t want to be quite so low-end? Then check out the Trappist monks’ wares in Dubuque, Iowa, where sales are brisk for their hand-hewn wooden caskets ($695 for a pine box), or Houston’s The Pine Box, where the cheapest one goes for $395.
It’s a baby boomer thing, this desire to call one’s shots even in death, and to make some sort of statement in the process.
The “green” allure of it all may be just window dressing. What the movement may really mean is that its disciples see no good sense in spending a lot of money for naught.
Not that the $20 billion-a-year funeral industry is going to close shop anytime soon. Funeral services are the third-largest personal expense, after a house and car, and figure to remain that way.
Besides, unless a person leaves detailed instructions to loved ones regarding the disposal of remains, said loved ones will continue to opt for traditional procedures — late Supreme Court Judge Hugo Black’s kin a notable exception.
Black’s instructions to his family were generalized: He wanted his funeral to be 1) simple, 2) cheap, 3) no open casket. And upon his death in 1971, his family took him at his word, and then some.
After a tour of the funeral home’s casket inventory, the family huddled up and unanimously chose the cheapest — a $165 pine box.
Then they made it look even humbler by ripping away every shred of fabric and frill, right down to bare wood. One of his adult children described the emotion of their act as nearly “euphoric.”
They’d not only followed their father’s wishes to a tee, they’d also deflated the pretentiousness of a room filled with pricey boxes in which to ensconce the dead.
Black had long been concerned about burial costs and the financial burdens they can place on loved ones. He wanted to demonstrate that a coffin’s cost doesn’t symbolize one’s love for the deceased, nor does it reflect upon his stature.

Brian Ojanpa is a Free Press staff writer. Call him at 344-6316 or e-mail bojanpa@mankatofreepress.com.

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