Journal on a Funeral Home Field Trip

Today we had a field trip to cornerstone funeral home which was completely a new experience to me .I have never been in a funeral home before, learning about the different areas in it was interesting. I appreciated the Funeral director’s words and I liked the part when he said that he gave up 13 Christmases just for the sake of helping and supporting grieved families. This was really a point to be respected for, it reflected his high sense of care and commitment to such a really hard job which needs lots of sincerity and devotion .The two gentlemen who work as mortician in this funeral home drew my attention. I was thinking how could they do such a job in this young age were almost every day they have to see or encounter dead people and families grieving .I am saying this because from what we all probably know`1 people in this age tend to avoid talking or dealing with anything related to death . After the field trip was done my overall impression was divided between appreciation to the hard job everyone is doing in this funeral home and amazement. I was amazed when I was informed that some people spend fortunes on very expensive caskets they are not going to benefit from. I thought they could rather use this money to help people in need or give it to charity .I was also stunned to hear all about the cremation process. I have never heard of such a process in my entire life. I only know about the regular burial process and that the deceased returns to nature passively. It really surprised me and made me think twice about life, it has opened my eyes more to diversity and the different diverse aspects of life. In my personal opinion I believe that the body is absolutely a blessing, having every single part of it function is a blessing indeed. This body help us walk, talk, write, think...etc. Without it we couldn’t be what we are now and so by burning it after dying, I guess we are disrespecting and humiliating it .What do the ashes really represent? How many generations are going to keep for instance their grandma as an urn? After the cremation and sprinkling of the ashes, the deceased is easily forgotten .On the contrary, the burial of the dead provides a life affirming aspect, it announces to the world that this person was here he/she had made a change to this world in way or another, this person had his own unique mark in life. To me, knowing that my beloved body is being burned wont relief me or make me feel any better but instead it is going to torture my heart and tear it more and more. I feel that this process doesn’t hold any sense of humanity.