Sunday, May 29, 2011

HW # 59 - SOF Prom 2011 & DSPs

I have now read three good descriptions of prom experiences written by my classmates. My first reaction was that I’m glad that the skepticism promoted in our class about this “rite of passage” that seniors are expected to attend did not keep them from having a good time. (Score: students 1; Andy 0 – joke). Actually, it sounds like the healthy awareness they had from Normal is Weird contributed to their having a better time.

Arden:
“I wanted so badly not to care about prom I started a fight against getting involved. And the day of the event I lost that battle. The influence of the event is hard to overcome. So difficult to the point where I ended up with the very typical experience. Surprisingly I am ok with it. I like the classic awkward, and posed pictures. I enjoyed the limo rides and the dancing. A stereotyped, typical experience I was in the end very glad to be a part of.”

What this quote makes me feel is that by being hyper-aware of all the clichés, a prom goer can keep from getting dragged down by them. The awareness gives participants a perspective so they can think “Now here’s the part where I make my entrance and my parents go ooh and ah, and here’s where we have to pose for the photos,” and just see the experience for what it is so they don’t feel they have to rebel against it completely.

Omar:
“I definitely had a bit of cynicism towards prom prior to it…Although I was never against the idea of prom in any way I saw it as a stupid event put on by the school that people go to because, as is said with many things prom related, it is tradition…My views of prom changed slightly because the experience didn’t feel so fake, as is so often described or portrayed…The traditions may be silly but following them isn’t so bad…Seeing everyone dance together and laugh and simply talk was nice.”

Natalie:
“It is funny how for one night people want to be someone else entirely. While dancing there was the circle dance, but not necessarily with “the outcast” in the middle. Everyone was included in the dancing and it was nice to just let yourself go. Nobody cared about how you danced or with whom you danced. Our grade was definitely unified…”

Omar’s quote and Natalie’s quote make me think that SOF did a good job of putting on a
low-key prom that made it possible for most people to have a great time. It also sounds like the school’s efforts to make us all respect each other paid off. Of course it’s possible that some kids had a less good time. Maybe some girls felt they had to spend too much money getting ready than they could afford. Maybe some hated their dress because they couldn’t afford the one they wanted. Maybe some hated the way they looked in the pictures that will get sent to all the relatives. Maybe some guys felt awkward or uncomfortable wearing what they were wearing and wished they hadn’t come. Maybe a few people felt like “outcasts.” I hope not. The only good part about not having a good time at the prom is that your story will be more interesting to tell when you are older. There can’t be a non-boring book or movie about a prom that is 100% fun for everybody.

So – how do I feel now about not having gone? I think maybe I missed something. I was playing soccer the same night in a game that was important because it is almost playoff time. It was a great game that ended in a tie, and afterwards every part of my body hurt. There was blood and there were black and green bruises. In fact, I was in great pain having had both my wrist and my ankle operated on three weeks ago because of game injuries. There’s a physical and a social price to pay if you choose to play these pre-professional sports. I guess I must not mind paying it. I like to dance, but when I’m on a field I love to play more than anything else in the world.

Wednesday, May 25, 2011

HW # 58 - Prom Interviews

Interviews: People’s feelings about proms

My age group
1st person – soccer teammate
I am not going to my prom. There isn’t anyone I
I felt that strongly about inviting. The whole thing is too
organized for me. It’s also too expensive for what it is.
I am a more spontaneous type of person and don’t really like
getting dressed up.

2nd person – another soccer teammate
The day that was the deadline for going to the prom I asked a
girl if she wanted to go and she said, “Not really.” So that was
the end of that. I didn’t even feel that strongly about asking
that girl, and there wasn’t anyone else I wanted to spend that
much time with. A group of us are going to a movie and getting
something to eat afterwards instead.

People in their 20s

1st person
I went to my prom with a girl whose parents were friends of my
parents. My mother said that I should go or I would regret not going
later in my life. I can tell you that it was a long night and at the end
we drove to a beach on Long Island. The girl I was with got cold and
asked me for my jacket. Then when it was time to leave she couldn’t
find it. My mother was so angry about my coming back without my
jacket that she actually said that proms were a waste of time and money
and that I should never have gone. My answer was, “That’s what I said.”

2nd person
Like your brother I was the only minority guy in my class. There were two
“minority” girls so the teacher in charge of the prom informed me that I
should take both of them. Actually, this took the pressure off,
and we all laughed about what was expected of us for a long time.

Older people

Friend from my mom’s office
I did go but it was not a memorable evening. There was only
one black guy in my class, and there were three black girls. I
was one of them. It was expected that he would take one of us and
that probably the other two of us wouldn’t go. One of the girls was
way too hot for him, and there was no possibility of her saying yes.
The other girl was shy and serious so he asked me, but he told me that I
would have to buy my own flowers if I wanted them. I said I would think
about it. My mother was so mad at me for saying that. She said that I
had to go and have pictures taken or I would regret it later. At the party
another guy asked me to dance and we ended up on the floor on our knees
shaking our shoulders. My date said that what I did was really embarrassing,
and he hardly spoke to me afterwards. I took a taxi back home to the Bronx
by myself.

My dad
I was 6 feet six in high school and there was one girl who was 6 feet one. My
mother forced me to take Big Betty, as she was known, to the prom. Big Betty
did not dance, but she loved to eat. She didn’t mind my dancing with other people.
I remember her saying, “You go dance. I’ll just have a little more chicken.”


It seems to me that we should have dealt with the “prom” subject in Normal is Weird
before food, birth, and dying. If we had, I might actually have considered going. I think I’m beginning to understand that the reason it is important to go is for its storytelling
value in years to come. And the weirder or worse a time you have the better your story.

It isn’t surprising that there are so many funny stories. The prom seems to have been started as a middle and lower class alternative to coming out society parties. Those parties no doubt were miserable for a lot of people too. In parts of the black community the prom really is considered a coming out into society as a respectable social person who can wear a suit other than to church. Thanks to pressure from mothers, teachers, and peers, many people go to their proms against their will but end up with a great story to use for the rest of their lives. It seems as though minority kids in a school have been expected to go with each other even if there are only two of them. Of course they should like each other that much. Or else they should be good sports and pretend that they do. Hearing about two people who are like each other going to the prom and having a great time has no good story value at all. Hearing about people being forced to pair up against their will has movie-making possibilities.

Tuesday, May 24, 2011

HW # 57 - Initial Thoughts on Prom

I will begin my preliminary thoughts about the senior prom by saying that I am
not going to mine. Luckily, I don’t feel any pressure to go, and it’s because it seems like a pressured event that I don’t want to go. The pressure to try to fit into an event that lasts all night and requires getting dressed up is there because I don’t really have a relationship with anyone or any group in my class that would make a long formal event seem like fun. On the other hand, going to Six Flags with class members has great appeal. In fact, I can’t wait to go. What’s the difference? Six Flags doesn’t require getting dressed up, there are no social expectations, and the rides provide great entertainment requiring no other behavior except to have fun. Does a prom require other behavior except to have fun? I think it does.

My older brother said that he was not going to his senior prom or senior dance as it was called. He went to a private school on a scholarship. A teacher he liked very much talked him into taking a girl who wanted to go very badly and with him. The teacher told him that everyone should have the experience of going to their senior dance and that it was a rite of passage. He didn’t agree, but he didn’t want to let his teacher down. (She is still a great friend of his and went to his college graduation last year.) The trouble began when the girl’s mother called Reed a few weeks before the dance and told him that her daughter was going to wear a purple dress and she hoped Reed would wear a shirt and tie that would go with it. My brother the basketball player couldn’t believe this. Then her family arranged to take him to a store to pick out a tie and shirt to go with her dress. They were incredibly ugly in his opinion, but he bought them. Then when the day came, Reed went to the girl’s house. The grandmother met him at the door and took him to the bathroom and told him to take a shower. He said he had already taken a shower. She told him to take another one. She had heard that he had had a game earlier that day. Later, the father took a thousand (that’s how many it seemed) photos of his daughter and Reed. The dance lasted all night with breakfast included the next morning. Even though my brother loves to dance, he said it was the longest night of his life. Not that the girl wasn’t nice, it was just too long a time to be mainly with one person. When in college two years later he started dating a girl from his high school class who was at the dance. They are still together and still laugh about the senior dance which they both thought would never end.

My situation is worse than my brother’s was. At least he knew all the kids in his class really well. I don’t know anyone in my class outside the school day. I have always left immediately after 3 to go to dance class and then to soccer. On weekends I played soccer all year long and still do. It’s not that I don’t like dances. I love music and I really like to dance but not with any one person yet especially hour after hour. At BalletTech, my middle school, we had great DJs, everyone could dance, and we danced in groups. At Cornell recently, I went to a Lupe Fiasco concert and had an amazing time. I just don’t want to put myself in any pressured social position. School, dance training, and soccer training have been pressure enough. Let the people go to the prom who want to go, but I’ll see everyone at Six Flags.

Q # 1 - Why do people ask if you're going to Prom with a serioous look on their face?

Q # 2 - Why don't schools just have a great band for seniors so that everyone would want to go? (For example if Lupe Fiasco were going to perform, I would be there.)

Q # 3 - Is not going to the prom worse for girls than it is for boys?

Thursday, May 19, 2011

HW # 56 - Culminating Project Comments

For Omar

I like the way you relate the high cost of funerals in this country to our economic system of capitalism.. You don’t blame the funeral directors who are just acting on
the “profit motive” which is everybody’s motive in this country unless they work for a nonprofit organization. Spending so much money on funerals is a great example of “normal is weird” because it makes no sense to spend more than you can afford honoring
dead people who should feel better about your using the money for their grandchildren’s education (as an example) and would probably would not want to be harming the environment if they knew they were doing that. Even if they did want a big send off, they will never know what you did, and you can always feel good about the fact
that you made them be a part of doing things a better way. As you said, people are easy victims when they are in mourning. There needs to be a cheaper and better alternative
to embalming, wakes, and burials in coffins and vaults that people know about and that
is available where they live. I really liked what you wrote.

For Ben

I think you did a great job showing that when it comes to making decisions about what to do with dead bodies, there are complications with all the options. Signing an organ donor card sounds like a great thing to do, but if you only want your organs used to save someone else’s life, you have to find out more about who is getting your organs. Your report makes me wonder about what control a person can have over what happens to his or her organs after signing the organ donor form. I wonder if you can specify a certain hospital or transplant doctor to get your organs. This could be a lot of work. I leave my heart to__________, my liver to _______________, and my eyes to ________________.
Stiff makes the case that parts are needed for research too, and when I saw the BODIES exhibit at South Street Seaport, I understood how helpful once live bodies can be for
teaching and learning. It’s not as though your name is attached to them. And if your family gets a free burial out of it, it’s worth considering.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

From AbdulM

Your blog seemed to be about this idea that all humans are going to end up rotting no matter what so why don't we stop being selfish and give back to the earth in a "greener" way. Instead of making the decomposition process longer than it should be why don't we just get it over with and give back, even though this may be hard for some of us Americans.

One aspect of your post that I particularly valued was that you provided five alternative to a a typical burial(slow burial). This is more than I learned in my care of the dead unit book. I guess I should have just waited for you to post this amazing blog and just not have read the book. You took the time out to research and not only state but you explained each alternative which is what I greatly appreciated.

Your project matter to me because these are alternatives to our dominant social practice which as we found out in all of the units is more dominant than we would like. These alternatives all have their pro-s and cons,but it seems as though they all outweigh the dominant social practice. I'm not sure if our dominant social practice will change though it appears as though cremation is next on the list to take over which would send us more in the direction of Japan as far as care of the dead is concered. When you think about that isn't to bad since America doesn't seem to know what there doing with issues like oh I don't know food, illness and dying, birth, and care of the dead. Overall great job best work in the class( as hard as that is to admit to myself) I expect nothing more from Mr. Class of 2015 Cornell.

From Omar

You do a very good job of stating the current situation and evaluating the faults. The alternatives you provide are very insightful not only on a very literal level but they say a lot about our society. There are other reasonable option out there for us yet we hold our selves too basically only two. We are so influenced by tradition thee is no progression. I also really like your last paragraph where you talk about in a bigger picture kind of way. The entire post was strong you stated, analyzed, and critiqued the situation. The alternatives were clear your progressive view on care of the dead was also made very clear. Overall, great job

From Dmitry

Great idea picking Kirk Nowitski and Kevin Garnett to tell us about burial options and recommend the cheapest one even though they could afford a Tutankamen-type tomb. I thought this was a really good summary of all the ways to dispose of our bodies. You should get this flyer printed.

From Mom

I did not know anything about the process of resomation or of promession and found it really interesting that there are better alternatives to cremation for the environment. You make a convincing case for a green burial, but since this has to happen right away and the ground could be frozen, that promession process sounds like the best alternative. Having the basketball players make the case for a better burial for the envionment was a really good idea. Someone should pick up on it! Maybe you should propose it.

Tuesday, May 17, 2011

xc - COTD3. Go to the "Bodies Exhibit"

After attending the BODIES exhibit at the South Street Seaport, I feel that I have a much greater appreciation of how lucky I am that I was born a human as opposed to any other creature on this earth. The trillions of tasks that occur each second can be mind- numbing (literally and figuratively). Specific parts of the exhibit that will stick with me are:
- Musculature. The skeletons with layers of muscles dribbling a basketball or
throwing a football
- Respiratory system. The section on lungs indicating that after smoking 1 pack of cigarettes, your life decreases by 3 hours and 40 minutes. There is actually a see- through container next to the exhibit where smokers are urged to chuck their cigarettes (already a foot high).
- Birth. Containers of week by week fetuses during the 9 month pregnancy showing the development of the skeleton for example
- Reaction speed. Skeleton throwing a baseball with statement that A-Rod has .458 seconds to identify the trajectory of a 90mph fastball and whether or not to swing.
- Sleep. Purpose may be so that we can process the day’s events and preserve long-term memories.
- Healing. Drugs soon to be tailored to our own specific genetic code. Stem cell research is helping us understand how the body heals itself and changing the way we think about fighting disease.

The controversy about the exhibit has to do with the fact that the bodies are all Chinese, and no one knows for certain how they died. The Chinese government says they were all unclaimed bodies, but this government locks people up and worse if they criticize it. I talked to one of the two doctors who were there to show visitors how to use machines to find out their blood pressure (118/58 for me) and body mass index (22.6 for me). He told me that the bodies belonged to the Dalian Medical University in China and would be returned there after the exhibit. He also said that the U.S. government does terrible things like the torture under the Bush administration, and that these bodies are at least being used for important teaching purposes.

I read that some people call the German scientist, Gunther von Hagens, who is responsible for the preservation of these bodies Dr. Frankenstein and think it is terrible that visitors go to “gawk” at them. This is ridiculous in my opinion. These bodies may be from individuals but they are now not individualized. They are all of us. They are me underneath, and they are fascinating because of the amazing way our bodies are put together and all the systems work. I learned a lot from this exhibit. Seeing diseased organs is upsetting, but having such dramatic evidence about what exercise and good health habits can help you avoid is a good thing.

This was a great extra credit assignment. I think everyone in the class would get a lot out of this exhibit.

HW # 55 - Culminating Project - Care of the Dead

Go for Green

It’s time to take responsibility for our remains, a euphemism for our dead bodies, our cadavers, our corpses, our carcasses. We have nothing to lose by leaving this earth without hurting it, do we?

Big Problems

In this country most of us are still buried. The problems with burials are:

We are using up valuable land for cemeteries, and cemeteries are running out of space. In fact, there are some places where you have to be buried vertically to be near your relatives. Also, many cemeteries are treated with pesticides and herbivores, poisons, that damage the environment.

In this country most of us are still embalmed. The problem with embalming is:

Most embalming fluid contains formaldehyde, which is extremely dangerous for the mortuary workers using it and is suspected as a cause of cancer, ALS, and problems with the nervous system. It also destroys for a while the microbes that help decompose the body

In this country most of us are put in caskets. The problem with caskets is:

Most caskets here are made of steel, and a lot of them have wood
veneers. They are not biodegradable. The ones made of wood destroy too many trees. Manufacturing them uses a lot of energy.

In this country many of us are put in vaults. The problem with vaults is:

Vaults are made of concrete, which is obviously not biodegradable. A lot of energy is also used to make the vaults.




Cost

The cost of an average funeral is $7,000. This is a lot of money for most people (not including us). Don’t you have better uses for that much money?

All of the above are designed to keep us looking good for a while longer when we are already an empty shell and especially to keep the earth with its worms and other creatures from eating us. But here’s the thing:

We are going to rot no matter what so why not rot in an earth-friendly way and go back to nature without dragging out the decomposition?

Without adding to the loss of resources, the use of too much energy and other pollutants, there are other ways – green ways – to lose the bodies. Sorry. We meant that there are other ways to leave this earth with dignity.
Why do we, Dirk Nowitski and Kevin Garnett, care?
According to the statistics,* there are 22,500 cemeteries in the U.S. that use up each year approximately:
30 million board feet (70,000 m³) of hardwoods (caskets)
90,272 tons of steel (caskets)
14,000 tons of steel (vaults)
2,700 tons of copper and bronze (caskets)
1,636,000 tons of reinforced concrete (vaults)
827,060 US gallons (3,130 m³) of embalming fluid, which most commonly includes formaldehyde.
(*Compiled from the Casket and Funeral Association of America, Cremation Association of North America, Doric Inc., The Rainforest Action Network, and Mary Woodsen, Pre-Posthumous Society)
At 6” 11” and 6” 9” we are going to use up a whole lot of the above, and this does noteven take into account all the energy that would be used. We would be using more that our share in a country that already uses more that its share of resources. But no one should feel left out. You shorties will still be causing trouble if you choose a typical burial - just a little less than we will.


Alternatives to typical burials (slow rotting):

Sky burial
A Sky burial used to be a typical Tibetan ritual. The human corpse is placed on a mountaintop (of which there are a lot in Tibet), cut in certain places, and presented as a feast to birds of prey, especially vultures. Since most Tibetans are Buddhists, the former person is having a rebirth so his or her body can return to nature. This is also a practical form of burial since the ground is too rocky for graves to be dug, and there are few trees to be burned for a cremation.


Sky burial site, Yerpa Valley



Skeletal remains of body after Vultures have fed.

A sky burial is probably free.





Cremation

Cremation is better for the environment than a typical burial involving embalming, a non-biodegradable casket, and a vault. It is also much cheaper.
Cremation costs from about $700 to $1,000, and the cheapest box for the remains is $20. but it does have a “carbon footprint” because a significant amount of fossil fuel is used to create the high temperatures needed to turn a body to ashes. According to the Trust for Natural Legacies, “You could drive about 4,800 miles on the energy equivalent of the energy used to cremate someone – and to the moon and back 83 times on the energy from all cremations in one year in the U.S.” Also, cremation causes mercury to enter the air from the coal fires but also from the burning of fillings in teeth. The Trust for Natural Legacies states that from 1,000 to 7,800 pounds of mercury goes into the air every year and one-fourth of it enters the ground and water.

Green burial

In a green burial the body is not embalmed. It is put in a biodegradable container and laid approximately three feet below the ground – deep enough so that it won’t be disturbed but not so deep that there won’t be enough oxygen to speed up decomposition. A place in a green cemetery with burial fees included costs about $1,000, but if you go to a non-profit nature preserve, it could be chaper. Ideally, it’s nice to be buried in a nature preserve because it is a protected habitat for plants and animals, and there won’t be any chemical fertilizers used or wasteful watering as is the case in cemeteries. Although a dead body has bacteria and viruses, they disappear for the most part soon after death. It would take many dead bodies near a water source to affect the safety of the water. As a precaution bodies are not buried near streams. In a natural green burial, bodies usually decay completely in 10 to 12 years. The climate and the soil affect how quickly decay happens.

Resomation

Resomation is a form of cremation that is friendlier to the environment because it uses 1/8 of the heat of a crematorium. The body is put into a steel chamber with potassium hydroxide and the high pressure applied turns the body into a powder. The dental remains can be removed so no mercury enters the air or ground or water. Usually the body powder is put into a coffin for the funeral. Resomation is more expensive than cremation because there are only resomators in six states, and they cost $440,000 each.


Promession

Promession is another form of cremation that is even friendlier to the environment than resomation. It involves freezing the body and then putting it into liquid nitrogen. It was developed by the Swedish biologist Susanne Wigh-Masak and is described in the book Stiff by Mary Roach. The body becomes extremely brittle, and when vibration is applied, it turns into an organic powder. Magnetism gets out the mercury from the dental remains. The powder is clean and has no smell and will turn into compost in 6 to 12 months. It costs about the same as a cremation.


Of all the greener alternatives to death, we favor plain and simple green burials. No embalming and no wake. We figure we can have passed out pictures of ourselves when we were at our best – not puffed up with embalming fluids so people can say how peaceful we look. When did we ever want to look peaceful?

The Sky burial has its appeal… But even though pictures aren’t allowed, someone in a helicopter would probably get a video of a bird eating our liver and put it all over You Tube.

It’s better not to be part of human wastefulness when going out of this world. Going back to nature and helping a plant or a tree grow, especially a tall tree, that’s the way to go.


Sources

“Green Burial: Choose to be Buried the Natural Way.” The New Ecologist June 16, 2010. May 14, 2011 .

“The Green Death: Funerals for the environmentally Conscious.” May 14, 2011 .

Roach, Mary. Stiff: The Curious Life of Human Cadavers. New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 2003.

Sprey, Karen. “Resomation and corpse-composting :green alternatives to cremation and burial.” July 5, 2010. .

“What we do – Conservation Cemeteries.” Trust for Natural Legacies, Inc. May 14, 2011 .


Evaluations

After reading this flyer by Dirk and Kevin, I have to admit that a green burial sounds more appealing to me now than being cremated, and being buried in a nature preserve sounds better than being buried in a cemetery. If it’s winter and the ground is too hard, my second choice is to be frozen into organic powder by promession. I actually learned a lot from reading this.
Reed Morgan (brother)

Members of my family always get buried. I was planning to break the mold with cremation, but now I like the idea of a simple green burial (like the kind we gave our dog). I like the way you had Dirk Nowitski and Kevin Garnett write this. I wonder if they will end up having really expensive coffins when they die.
Gabe (friend)

Friday, May 13, 2011

HW # 54 - Independent Research B

I interviewed Reed Bye, Ph.D., who teaches English at Naropa University , which has a strong association with Buddhism. I sent him the following questions about Buddhist thinking regarding death and what happens next, and he inserted his answers.

1. How does a Buddhist prepare for death during his/her life? Right at the end of his/her life?

The Buddhist view is that moments and states of being come and go all the time; life can change very suddenly, as we know. Death is one of those moments. In life we work with not grasping onto things, which will inevitably change anyway. That is the practice of meditation.

2. Do Buddhists ever say they have memories of former lives? Have any former lives ever been documented?

Some so-called "realized" people, ones who have understood the true nature of mind and reality, and want to help others understand it too (they are called "bodhisattvas" in the Mahayana Buddhist tradition), are said to be able to remember details of former lives.

3. Is the next life on earth something you worry about?

I worry a little that if I died with a lot of anger at someone or something, or really stupidly unconscious, that that mental state would influence the rebirth.

4. Could you lead a good life and be reborn as an animal?

A bodhisattva could, it is said; if he chose a situation like that to help other beings. Aside from that, anything can happen, esp. (as in the question above) if the mind is confused one way or another when it dies.

5. Do you have the sense you could reach Nirvana? Is heaven different from Nirvana?

Nirvana is the other side of confusion, a kind of awakened state, but different from most ideas of heaven. In the Buddhist view, nothing really exists ultimately, only relatively, so the idea that "I" will be reborn as "me" in a happy state somehow is delusion. It is really just stubborn mental habits that carry on, just like they do in life. If we can free ourselves from these mental patterns that tend to make our lives automatic, then the true nature of our mind expresses itself as clarity and awareness at death.

6. How are Buddhist cadavers treated? Is it true that no one should touch the corpse for a period of time so that the spirit can go into a better life?

Something like that, I hear. The body is said to die in stages, not all at once. And mind and body are not separate as long as the body is alive, so it is good if the body can rest undisturbed for awhile. (About three days I have heard is good).

7. How can you get out of Hell?

First, I think you must realize you are in it. Then, look into what you do that keeps you there.

8. Do Buddhists always choose cremation to dispose of their bodies? Would this new technique of freeze drying and becoming compost be all right?

Cremation seems common, but once the body is dead, there probably would be no problem with freeze drying and composting.
I asked Reed Bye about the “stubborn mental habits” that keep us from getting to Nirvana. He said that these are our ideas about ourselves including our memories and our needs and greed for things in this world that give us our sense of self. This is what we are afraid of losing when we die. We are afraid of becoming nothingness, and we don’t understand that Nirvana is nothingness. He suggested that I have a look at a book called Shambhala: The Sacred Path of the Warrior by Chögyam Trungpa, which is about Buddhist concepts of self-knowledge being the way to solve the problems in the world. I found this quote that describes the “stubborn mental habits” in a way that I understand them.
At the root, fear means the fear of death which means simply the death of “me”. Ego is the name for all the ideas, images, and feelings we have about who we are or want to be. It is also the root of fear. Stepping out of the cocoon of “me” is a slow process of learning about fear. What I think I understand is that the less we are obsessed with ourselves and the more unselfish we become, the better the next life our spirit is born into will be. We have to keep dying and being reborn until we don’t want anything for ourselves anymore and get rid of our egotism and our fear of not existing as ourselves. Then we have enlightenment and will be in Nirvana.

I found this explanation of how to get ready to die as a Buddhist in an essay online called “Buddhist View on Death and Rebirth” by Ven.Thich Nguyen Tang:

The Buddha urged us to prepare for death, to prepare for that journey by cleansing the mind and not being so attached to things, to be able to let go and release ourselves for needing to be, from needing to have. Through this we will not suffer so much as we pass through the final stage of the present life, we can let go, be grateful for what we had but not clutch to it, not try to ensure permanency and cause ourselves to suffer more than we need to. This way we can end the cycle and leave forever, obtaining nirvana and release from the cycle of death and rebirth. (www.urbandharma.org/udharma5/viewdeath.html )

Obviously, it is not so easy to let go of our idea of ourselves or else we would all be Buddhas in Nirvana. Reed Bye said it is the hardest thing to do in the world and that is why people who practice Buddhism do meditations which get harder and harder progressively. For people who don’t meditate we can try to take good actions in our lives and not cause suffering for others. (This sounds like existentialism to me., doing good deeds and then being part of the universe.) Then at least we have a better chance of being born into a good life the next time.

Wednesday, May 11, 2011

HW # 53 - Independent Research A

“The Dead Tell a Tale China Doesn’t Care to Listen To”
www.nytimes.com/2008/11/19/world/asia/19mummy.html

In the Xinjiang region of China there have been over 200 extremely will preserved mummies discovered over the past couple of decades, and the oldest one is 3,800 years old. They are one of the greatest archeological discoveries of recent times, but the Chinese government doesn’t want researchers going near them. The reason is that Xinjiang is a rich oil province, and there is a strong nationalist movement of 9 million Turkic-speaking Uighurs, who are Muslims, living there, and they would like to separate from China. The Chinese government likes to think that Xinjiang has been part of China for many centuries, but the mummies, who are not Chinese and come from the west, a mix of Uighurs and people who were Indo-European and also from Iran, show that others were there way before the Chinese.

“Dead Join the Living in a Family Celebration”
www.nytimes.com/2010/09/06/world/africa/06madagascar.html

In Madagascar it is a custom for people to dig up the remains of their ancestors from time to time and dance with their bones in a big celebration. Some believe it is possible to ask the dead for good health and wealth and that their spirits will grant requests, and others just use the occasion to tell younger family members about their ancestors. The event is called a famadihana, and the one being reported on was requested by a widow hose husband had died 16 years earlier and who had just saved enough money ($7,000) to buy a crypt for him.


In both of the above stories the remains are thought to have a useful purpose by the living. If the bodies had been cremated, then there would not be mummies to show who was around long ago or bones to dance with in order to feel close to the formerly living. Do these burials make me think that cremation (or composting) is not such a great idea because ashes don’t leave a record historically and aren’t easy to dance with? No, I don’t feel that way. There are so many people on earth, and there will always be many who are buried. We can’t afford the space to bury everyone, and for many people burial is too expensive. It makes me think that a few mummies should be made in every generation in desert climates, where they seem to last best.

Monday, May 9, 2011

HW # 52 - Third Third of the COTD Book

Precis:

Chapter 9 of Stiff begins in 1795 with Dr. Guillotin, the French doctor who lobbied for the use of the guillotine as a humane execution option, reading a letter that called it a form of torture. The reason that was given was that since the brain is the “seat of consciousness,” it is aware of its situation just after the big chop. This possibility led to a lot of experiments with recently severed human heads, with dogs’ heads and even to the grafting of a monkey’s head on to the neck of another monkey. At the end of the chapter we find out that there have not yet been any human head transplants. Not yet. Chapter 10 deals with cannibalism beginning with a 12th century Arabian custom of feeding an old man only honey before he dies and then preserving him in honey for a 100 years until pieces of him can be eaten to cure broken arms and legs. The honey recipe comes from a 16th century Chinese medical document that also had a recipe for “powdered human penis” to “ease the pain and put a shine on your mood.” It also talks about the artist Diego Rivera who said he ate fresh killed humans with friends for a month as an experiment, and they all felt great. Chapter 11 describes a Swedish woman’s development of an ecological burial that involves freeze drying the body so it can be used
as compost. A circle of life approach. In Chapter 12 I think about what to do with my own remains. Should I become a laboratory skeleton (getting the meat off is too disgusting), have my brain kept in a jar (more likely that it would be cut up in pieces and put in a refrigerator), or have plastination to preserve my body for 10,000 years (costs $50,000 and I would be naked). I decide that it is really the family members who
should decide because they are the ones who have to live with whatever has been done
with the person they have lost.

Quotes:

Laborde didn’t typically spend so much time personalizing his subjects, preferring to call them (recently guillotined heads) simply restes frais. The term means, literally, “fresh remains,” though in French it has a pleasant culinary lilt , like something you might order off the specials board at the neighborhood bistro. (p. 203)

Chong describes a rather gruesome historical phenomenon wherein children, most often daughters-in-law were obliged to demonstrate filial piety to ailing parents, most often mothers-in-law, by hacking off a piece of themselves and preparing it as a restorative elixir. Examples for the Ming Dynasty were so numerous that Chong gave up on listing individual instances…In total, some 286 pieces of thigh, thirty-seven pieces of arm, twenty-four livers, thirteen unspecified cuts of flesh, four fingers, two ears, two broiled breasts, two ribs, one waist loin, one knee, and one stomach skin were fed to sickly elders. (p. 233)

Then one day I had a conversation with Phillip Backman, during which he mentioned that one of the cleanest, quickest, and most ecologically pure things to do with a body would be to put it in a big tide-pool of full of Dungeness crabs, which apparently enjoy eating people as much as people enjoy eating crabs. (p. 276)

Here’s the other thing I think about. It makes little sense to try to control what happens to your remains when you are not longer around to reap the joys or benefits of the control. People who make elaborabe requests concerning disposition of their bodies are probably people who have trouble with the concept of not existing. (p. 290)


Analytical paragraph:

The last third of Stiff continues to explore the usefulness of cadavers as proof that our consciousness or soul lives in the brain and dies when the brain dies, as food or ointments for injuries or to promote health (mostly in the past), or as compost to help the environment. The composting idea from the Swedish woman environmentalist has the author’s approval because it is non-polluting and cheaper than cremation, and it is organic. The little freeze dried pieces of us are organic unlike our ashes and have “nutritive value” when they are used to help a plant or a tree grow. This idea makes me think of the book Pushed which makes the point that the birthing process should be more natural and less controlled by man and technology. Even though freeze drying is a process, it is a more natural one than cremation and being able to use the remains to make a tree grow is much more appealing than having a body slowly rot in an expensive coffin.

Thursday, May 5, 2011

HW # 51 - Second Third of COTD Book

Second Third of Stiff

Precis:

The second third of the book Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers tells how cadavers have been used to find the cause of airplane crashes. In the case of TWA Flight 800, which crashed in 1996, the fact that bodies were found in tact in the water with burns only on their backs caused by fuel catching fire on the water proved that the plane did not have a bomb (which would have blown up the bodies) and was not hit by a missile (which would have caused burns on fronts and sides). This part of the book also tells about cadavers being used for military studies like testing more humanitarian bullets that could stop enemy soldiers without killing them, improving chest armor, and testing boots to be worn when clearing land mines. There is a section about a doctor in the 1930s who “crucified” cadavers to try to prove that a cloth called the Shroud of Turin was the one Jesus was wearing when he died. Another doctor about ten years ago used live people instead of cadavers with leather straps instead of nails to disprove the other doctor’s theories. The last chapter in the third section is about a “beating heart cadaver,” which is one that can be used for transplants of the heart and other organs since the brain is dead. It also talks about the huge fear of being buried alive before the perfecting of the stethoscope, the debate about where in the body the soul is located, and the fact that it was only in 1974 that brain death (and not the stopping of the heart) was made the legal definition of death.

Quotes:
For Shanahan, the hardest thing about Flight 800 was that most of the bodies were relatively whole. “Intactness bothers me much more that the lack of it,” he says. The sorts of things most of us can’t imagine seeing or coping with – severed hands, legs, scraps of flesh – Shanahan is more comfortable with. “That way, it’s just tissue. You can put yourself in that frame of mind and get on with your job.” (p. 114)

Could airlines do a better job of making their planes fire-safe? You bet they could. They could install more emergency exits, but they won’t, because that means taking out seats and losing revenue. They could install sprinkler systems or build crash-worthy fuel systems of the type used on military helicopters. But they won’t because both these options would add too much weight. More weight means higher fuel costs.” (p. 125)

To allay patients’ considerable fears of live burial…eighteenth and nineteenth-century physicians devised a diverting roster of methods for verifying death…The soles of the feet were sliced with razors, and needles jammed beneath toenails…One French clergyman recommended thrusting a red-hot poker up…”the rear passage.” (p. 171)

Analytical paragraph:

This part of the book told me a lot I didn’t know about how cadavers are used to find the cause of plane crashes and to improve survival chances for soldiers. It is scary that airlines don’t install safety features that the cadavers have helped identify in order to save money. The most interesting part of this book to me was the part about where in the body people have thought the soul was located and how amazing it is that a person who is dead can still have a living heart and other organs that can save another person’s life.

By the end of this part of the book I think I am no longer that bothered about cadavers being treated like objects for a good reason (the improvement of living people’s lives). I am not thinking that this body could be my grandfather and even if it was, it would be a great thing if he could make life better for someone else. The more you read this book the more at ease you are with dead bodies and the idea of all the good they can do. That seems to be the point of this book.

Monday, May 2, 2011

HW # 49 - Comments on Best of Your Break HW

Naima’s Post (my comments)

My first thought after reading about the deaths of your mother and of “Little Ped” was how proud your mother would be because of the feelings and values you have and how well you write about them. Your father, your brothers, and you had to be incredibly diplomatic with your grandmother, even allowing your mother to be buried in a dress you knew your mother hated. I think it was great that you found ways “to make sure that the ceremony reflected my (your) mother’s values.” I hope there was some drumming.

You also talk about the conflict between generations over the decision of your stepmother to end her pregnancy due to a fatal birth defect and the wishes of your father’s mother to
keep the baby alive and hope for a miracle. Burying Little Ped’s ashes under a tree you planted for him is about the best burial practice I can imagine. How great it would be if
we all ended our lives this way.

The only other comment I have is that your family’s experience with your mother’s death seems like an argument for people to write down what they want to have happen when they die to avoid conflicts. Your mother died much too young but for older people it
probably is a good thing to tell your family your if-I-die wishes.

Eloise’s Post (my comments)

I was impressed by the fact that you interviewed four people and had four different responses to death that represent the way many people feel about it. There was the Christian who will go to heaven or hell, the thoughtful guy who thinks we go to “a different place” the guy who thinks death is blankness and non-existence, and the guy who wants his body to rot but have one bone remain as a record of his having been here. I think you were just missing a Hindu who believes in coming back to earth in a different life form. It was interesting that the Christian said about death that there “seemed to be no thinking to do.” That line sounds like one of the big reasons religion had to be created, so that people don’t have to worry themselves about death. It is also interesting that three of the four of them want to be cremated and donate their organs. This is a trend
that should continue.

Nina's Post (my comments)

Nina does not have a blogger account...I cannot post comments

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From Eloise

I thought your post was intersting and insightful into your family dynamics.I could hear a good amount of family character in your post.

You discuss both your grandomthers perespectives and that of your fathers. You discuss how their perspectives differ, their similarties and how you compare to there views.

I really liked the way you peiced together the answer by also inserting your insight. I think that this poem resonates well with your post !


EXPENDABLE BY: LANGSTON HUGES

"We will take you and kill you,
Expendable.

We will fill you full of lead,
Expendable.

And when you are dead
in nice cold ground,
We'll put your name
above your head-

If your head
Can be found."

I think it is powerful to note that with generation and time big things change and in a mass size, most of my interviewees as well desired to be cremated. I wonder how our current dominate religous views reflect of the major cremation acceptance !

GREAT JOB.

From Naima

i appreciated the context in which you brought the reader. your use of quotes made your post more engaging and allowed your post to flow in a nicer way.

i also liked how you showed that normally, people in your family would be more attracted to burials, and how both of your grandmothers (on both sides) are breaking the tradition by preferring cremations.

your post bring the reader to speculate about how some people like to have a good image of the dead (you used the example of your grandmother spent lots of money to make her husband look nice. your post also makes the reader think about the different controversies in this decision making. all in all, good job.

From Nina (Nina does not have a blogger account Andy...How can she post comments?)

Sunday, May 1, 2011

HW # 50 - First Third of Care-of-the-Dead Book Post

First Third of Care-of-the-Dead Book

Precis:

The first third of the book Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers tells how cadavers have contributed to a better life for the living beginning with heads that help cosmetic surgeons practice on the job, how they have helped medical students throughout history learn anatomy through dissection, how they used to be hard to come by and produced the profession of body snatcher, how they became easier to get after the first successful heart transplant, the Uniform Anatomical Gift Act, and the increased cost of funerals, and how they are used in crash testing to improve design improvements for safety in cars. This part of the book also tells about the process of decay of bodies thanks to bacteria and baby flies (maggots), the process of embalming to make the body last a little longer, and the process of cremation to make the point that body disposal is never pretty.

Quotes:

“The way I see it, being dead is not terribly far off from being on a cruise ship…If I were to take a cruise, I would prefer that it be one of those research cruises…I guess I feel the same way about being a corpse. Why lie around on your back when you can do something interesting and new, something useful?” (p.9)

“The problem with cadavers is that they look so much like people.” (p.21)

“For evident reasons, mortuary science is awash with euphemisms. ‘Don’t say stiff, corpse, cadaver…Say decedent, remains of Mr. Blank. Don’t say ‘keep.’ Say ‘maintain preservation.’…” Wrinkles are “acquired facial markings.” Decomposed brain that filters down …and bubbles out the nose is “frothy purge.” (p. 77)

“Life contains these things: leakage and wickage and discharge, pus and snot and slime and gleet. We are biology. We are reminded of this at the beginning and the end, at birth and at death. In between we do what we can to forget.” (p. 84)

Analytical paragraph:

Because a lot of the beginning of this book is so gruesome dealing with the treatment of cadavers for education and testing and the way the body decays, I liked the historical parts the best like the description of the Father of Embalming, Thomas Homes, who seems to have been responsible for modern embalming. He developed a fluid to put in the arteries that helped the Civil War troops not to have to deliver decomposing bodies to families. He also made it possible for Abraham Lincoln’s body to travel from Washington to Illinois and be seen by so many people. I know that the reason this book seems so grotesque to me is that like most people I can’t separate the cadaver from the human who used to be attached to it. I think it is good that medical students are having more digital anatomy classes now even if it is just because they don’t have enough time to spend with cadavers. Also researchers are using body parts now more than whole bodies. This fact makes me feel better about donating my body for research. The idea of having family members, friends, or myself laid out whole to be cut up by a first-year medical student would keep me from signing the donation form.