Make it a good party.

In her Jenconsin blog today, Jennifer had these thoughts about her on funeral wishes. Since we had just buried Betsy’s ashes, this has been on my mind, too. Jennifer sounded like she’d been in my head, too, so (with a few personal changes), I’m taking the liberty of copying her post here. (Thanks, Jenn!)

Being at a funeral affects your thinking toward your own mortality. Specifically, it makes me want to shout from the rooftops what I don't want done with me after I'm gone. Everyone has their choices and reasons for their end of life decisions. And this is no judgment on any of the choices of others; Only what I feel strongly about for me. And since this seems as reasonable of a rooftop as any:

+No open casket. Please. I don't want anybody looking at my made-up self talking about how good I look.
+Let's just say no casket, period. Cremate me.
+Do what you want for the funeral. It's for who is left anyway. But if you could have decent music, that'd be nice.
+No headstones. I need no marker of me on some valuable piece of land next to other headstones. Remember me somewhere I actually like to be. Go to the beach. Go to the mountains. Plant a tree. That's where I'd prefer to be while living anyway, so remember me there if you must have a place.
+If you'd like a trip or two to nice places, take me with and scatter bits of me in my favorite places around the world - Fort Morgan (AL), Valley of the Gods (UT), the Canadian Rockies, northwestern New Mexico - you get the picture. If you're cheap and don't want to go to nice places, throw me in the water somewhere pretty - saltwater is always nice, or a mountain stream.
+Bottom line, keep it simple. And keep it cheap. And please, don't spend a lot on a funeral. Unless it's to splurge on the good booze. Then, by all means, have at it.
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Cannonball tree, Cambodia.