Sunday, March 02, 2008

Fantasy Funeral

I feel guilty for the last rant so it's back to real time.

We've all expressed various degrees of death fear, and I'm at the top end of that scale, but that doesn't mean I can't dream about featuring in an episode of pimp my funeral.

Old school Catholic rituals for me please. A spattering of Irish in the ceremony with a complete ban on gospel choir cheese. No surprises for guessing I'd like the general appearance to look like this:

Only if my departure is due to a tragedy of love would it be fitting to use Wagner's Tristan & Isolde as they did in this film. My ceremony will culminate of course in Beethoven's 9th Symphony; however, I wouldn't say no to this piece at the offertory or communion to get the emotion going:



My preference is to be buried in Glasnevin or a nice old cemetery, but most of them are full. I haven't solved this problem yet. My local feeder cemetery is a drab field beside the airport; devoid of history and character, it would fit perfect in any Communist bloc state.

As for the epitath? That's another day's work, but if I had to choose on the spot, it would have to be...


...it's a funny old world.

4 comments:

  1. I wish I'd invested in a plot long ago, when they cost very little. What to do now! I'd love somewhere scenic and oldy, like Glendalough.

    And I could be making money renting it out as a bijou basement appartment as we speak. 2x6'. What a missed opportunity!

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  2. Hm. Made me think of what my (14 year old) daughter said to me last weekend. "Mom, just so you know, if I should die now I want you to promise you'll make sure the music will be Green Day - Time of Our Lives.

    I took notes.

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  3. God. I've already been to a funeral where that was played :(

    It was good, alright.

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  4. I'm putting in for cremation and scattering. Our little blip in the overall scope of the human race makes me really hesitate to take 33-1/3 square feet of the planet to hold what is soon just my skeleton. A few hundred metres above those of a dinosaur that lived millions of years ago.

    I've never really understood the reasons behind a cemetary. Shouldn't we be able to find other ways to help the handling of grief and loss than this?

    (Wow, looking this up I discovered Wikipedia even describes live burial. Never enough information.)

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