Last Sunday, I seized upon a great Ash Wednesday activity for any church congregation. I proposed the idea to my minister, and she thought it was great. The idea? Have everyone make their own funeral urn. Not that anyone will have an immediate need for such a thing. But sooner or later, we are all going to die. That's the point of Ash Wednesday: To remind us that we all die. It would be a craft activity, and everyone could participate, including the children. Just have everyone bring a one gallon plastic jug with a lid. And supply paste, paper, and crayons and scissors and old seed catalogues that have pictures of flowers. Let everyone decorate their own urn, and festoon it with slogans and prayers and epitaphs etc. Remind every person that their urn is their own personal project, and they can dress it up any way they like. After the exercise is over, you just take it home, put it on a shelf and forget about it and get on with your life. But every now and then, when you stumble across it, think about it and remember: LIFE IS SHORT. live it now!
I have already decided what to put on mine. Mostly, instructions for the dispersal of my ashes:
A TROUT STREAM FLOWING TOWARD THE SEA IS WHERE YOU SHOULD DISPOSE OF ME
So please respect my final wish: To feed the plants that feed the fish.
And as you slowly pour me out, please do not disturb the trout.
Then to the ocean I'll return, and leave behind this humble urn.
The dead zone of the Mississippi, will receive this ancient hippie.
And as a wave above me crashes, and diatoms consume my ashes,
In the churning green grey foam, I shall find my final home.
And on the back I will write:
A microscopic moment on a pale blue dot,
Our histories can be written with a single jot.
An evanescent snowflake on a sea of time,
An existence void of meaning, if it didn't rhyme.
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