Editor,
I enjoy living simply and I want to die simply, whether I die tomorrow or 30 years from now. I reject cremation! Cremation of one body requires the energy it takes to drive a car thousands of miles. I reject embalming! Embalming is an expensive, unnecessary use of poison chemicals. Cooling the body with no embalming can delay burial to two or three days after death.
This summer, I bought a plot at San Jose de Armijo Cemetery on Aremal, west of Coors — the only real estate I have bought in my nearly 73 years! San Jose de Armijo is a beautiful, dirt cemetery — much cheaper than most large grass cemeteries here. Why waste water in this desert to grow grass in cemeteries? No vault, no lines are required at San Jose de Armijo.
I made my coffin out of ½” plywood. I spent about $60. Why waste thousands of dollars on a luxury box and a fancy funeral for my dead body when millions of children worldwide suffer from hunger and cold with no home?
I very much want to be reunited with all my loved ones in a better world beyond death, but I strongly doubt that happens. Wanting something deeply does not make it so.
I encourage all to come to the Marigold Day of the Dead parade Sunday, Nov. 4 at 2 p.m. on Isleta, south of Arenal S.W.
Don Schrader
