Do you ever think about dead bodies?
Oh, goody. Today's memoir ought to be cheerful and uplifting.
Just answer.
I try not to think about dead bodies, which I bet is true for most people.
Yeah. But sometimes, you have to.
Anyway, I was thinking about everything with Sag and how humans get about how bodies are treated after death. My first thought is that we discuss it in terms of bodily autonomy, even though the "autonomy" part doesn't really exist once you're dead. Essentially, you get to impose a contract on everyone else to treat your body as you previously instructed, even though there's no way for you to hold them accountable for not doing so.
Is there something wrong with that?
I guess that, much like a funeral, the way we treat bodies after people die is more for our own peace of mind than due to anything related to the decedent. We treat dead bodies reverently because we want to be treated that way when we go.
Sure.
We don't have control over anything when we die, after all. Getting to state your last wishes and know they'll be adhered to, I guess it lets people feel like they have control over something, and in a literal sense, power over death. Like, death alone cannot conquer your written will. Which makes me realize that the word "will," as in "last will and testament," really sums up what it's about. It's will--the ability to make deliberate choices--that supposedly sets humans apart, right? The will is the ultimate expression of it. Your will--as in, your desired choices--is embodied in a document, and must be executed faithfully, or the force of law will intervene. And it makes me think... doesn't that approach the behavior of a death cult? We allow the dead to hold power over the world of the living. That's a choice. That's not something we have to do. But most cultures have some kind of death ritual--even holding a funeral and executing a will constitutes "ritual." And it fixates on what is to be done with your body when you're gone, how to proceed with your worldly possessions, how to distribute your estate, etc. A flurry of activity caused simply and directly by your exit from this world.
Yeah, what can I tell you? I can't say I really enjoy this topic.
Who does? But it matters, doesn't it? Let me ask you: do you care what happens to your body when you die?
I'd like any useful organs to be given to people who need them. After that, I don't care. I'm dead. The parts of me that make me who I am aren't contained in my corpse in any accessible way, so it literally doesn't matter what happens to my body. At least, that's my opinion. I respect that many cultures have rich traditions around death, and I'm not a fan of you being dismissive toward them.
Sure, but how many of these traditions exist because people started doing them hundreds or thousands of years ago and just... never stopped? We have behavior in the present being controlled by people who are long dead, regarding death.
People like that kind of continuity. I can see it. It's the same reason some people find comfort or even pleasure in researching their family tree. It's the connection to something not just greater, but theoretically eternal.
Yeah, well. I guess.
Wait, is this related to that time you found your own dead body?
No.
Uh huh.
How would it be related?
I don't know, maybe you have some resentment about how you were left there like that? Dumped in a remote nowhere, not to be found for 20,000 years.
As we know, that wasn't really "me." It was a different version.
But I can tell how it upset you. Maybe part of what upsets you is that your body was alone there for so long? We put people in cemeteries for the continuity, too. It's a place we can go and visit, and although it's sad, it's also comforting to see all these graves, all these people who came and went, but at least here's a mark on the world that they left behind.
Tough luck for people who get cremated, eh?
Except that you can keep them closer to home!
Yeah, love having someone's burned up corpse sitting on my mantle, it's very classy.
Whatever. I think this is just another chapter in "Robert Maxwell is afraid of death and tries to pick apart everything related to it to make himself feel better."
I'm not afraid of death.
Prove it, then. Die.
Very funny.