Mushroom Death Suit

Our professor, Erin McGuire, sent out a message with a link to this TedTalk by Jae Rhim Lee:

http://www.ted.com/talks/jae_rhim_lee.html. 

She stated that it was one of her favourite options for burial. You can read her musings about Vikings and most things death related here: http://erinsanth397.blogspot.ca/. 

What I really like about this TedTalk is that it emphasizes the need for acceptance of new solutions to environmental problems. We are simply using and abusing our earth and our bodies. Everyone seems to know that and yet we continue to engage in social practices that contribute to this destruction.

For instance, Lee mentions that BPA is found in 93% of people 6 years and older and yet we continue to use it in canned goods despite its reputation for causing cancer.

What are we doing? We aren’t on a ship at sea or stuck in our backyard bomb shelter. Although, I guess maybe some of you are at sea, and there was that movie with Brendan Fraser “Blast From The Past” where canned goods would obviously come in handy. Brendan Fraser and seamen can have a pass. Everyone else, buy a tomato, grow a tomato, and take the time to soak your beans; stop contributing to environmental waste and polluting your body just because you are lazy.

Lee acknowledges that, when we die, we return to the environment to continue the cycle of toxicity. If you are cremated, the chemicals in your body are released into the atmosphere. If you have a Christian funeral, you are covered in cosmetics and filled with formaldehyde in an attempt to preserve your body and make it appear as if you are simply sleeping.

Why do we continue to do these things?

In a previous post, I wrote about wanting to be buried near a tree so that the energy from my decomposing body could be used to make that tree grow. Apparently, there is already a similar idea called Green burial. Check out this website for a how-to:

http://www.treehugger.com/sustainable-product-design/poetree-a-funeral-urn-that-lets-you-plant-a-tree-from-ashes.html

Most green ideas involve using the ashes of a cremated body, so it’s not really all that green. That’s why Lee came up with the Infinity Burial Project in which she uses mushrooms to decompose and clean bodies.

Welcome, the mushroom death suit!

Source:http://blog.koldcast.tv/media/burial/Mushroom%20Death%20Suit.jpg

What a great idea. I completely agree with the direction she is going and I hope that a lot more people will jump on board. She calls this project a “step towards accepting the fact that some day I will die and decay”. We are so afraid of death; we live in a culture of “death denial” in which, we are constantly trying to preserve our bodies, even once death has already occured.

Why? 

I mean, I get it, death is scary.

The end.

No more.

But in my humble opinion, the first step to enjoying life, is accepting death. It is because we must endure the pain of loss, that we do. In other words, accepting something that is inevitable is the fastest way to the other side (of it).

(Appropriate death puns?)

Well, we get through it. So, let’s start being honest about reality. Lee elegantly states “accepting death means accepting that we are physical beings who are intimately connected to the environment”. What a great way of saying there is no life without death. And since it is unavoidable, let’s start making it fun! Mushroom death suits for everyone!

I think artist Jae Rhim Lee is on to something. It’s creative people like her that help to assuage my fears over our current environmental situation. Her dictum is that “the survival of our species depends on the survival of the planet” and that “this is the beginning of true environmental responsibility”. So, maybe, just maybe, with enough creativity and ambition, we humans will be able to change some of our cultural behaviours that have negative effects on our planet. Perhaps the next generation will inherit an earth that is cleaner, all because of fungal apparel. 

Now that’s something I can dig.