It might just be me, but I find the apparently growing trend in building your own coffin or buying your casket well before your death a little creepy! I came across this development for the first time while flipping through the channels on my TV two weeks ago during reading break. I happened to stumble upon a do it yourself show instructing viewers on how to build your OWN coffin. My immediate thought was who would WANT to build their own coffin? What a morbid way to spend a perfectly good weekend.
After further consideration, I realised that much of our lives are spent considering, dreading and preparing for our own deaths. Not only do people pre-purchase their own coffins, some people build their own. Furthermore, most people write and maintain wills for the passing and protection of their possessions, wealth and land. It is not even uncommon for people to sign an agreement for the plot of land they will be buried on well before their death (my own grandmother has done this!). The potential benefit to this is possibly the savings provided for the deceased family; building your own casket and purchasing your land is bound to save thousands of dollars.
BUT
Can we really find comfort in knowing where we shall eventually rest and what will happen to our belongings? Is it beneficial to spend so much of our lives preparing?
Later I realised that the trend in planning our burials is not modern. Egyptian Pharaohs began constructing their pyramids within a few years of gaining leadership. It was essential that the pyramids be completed so the Pharaoh was assured his transcendence into the afterlife. I feel assured that the Pharaohs found relief in knowing that the buildings which would protect and guide them into the afterlife were complete. Furthermore, I doubt they felt concerned about knowing their pyramid’s exact location. So why do I not feel the same?
In the Northern Hemisphere, the Vikings buried their dead in mounds on property lines to signify their ancestral right to their land and its borders. How different is this from the modern writing of wills? Wills in reality represents the protection and passing of wealth. How does this differ from the mounds which represent the family’s right to the wealth of the land?
A further thought…
A web search today offered me a reason for building your own casket, the option to creatively designing it! Why should all coffins look the same, why not have a personalized one? Constructing your own coffin gives you total creative control over its exterior and interior appearance. This gives individuals the chance to express themselves through their own death. Really the options for design are endless:
How strange would it be for an archaeologist to uncover a casket shaped like an ear of corn? How would it be interpreted? Would the individual be considered an attribute to society … or a social outcast?
Despite this I find all these trends to be a little too morbid for my liking! Really I wonder why you would waste so much of your life over thinking your death. Life’s just not worth wasting! In reality “Every man dies - Not every man really lives.” - William Ross Wallace
References:
A., 2011. How To Build Your Own Coffin [Online] (Updated 17 January 2011) Available at: http://www.squidoo.com/coffin [Accessed 12 March 2011].
Morell, V., 2001. The Pyramid Builders, National Geographic 200(5), pp. 78-85.
Patch, C., 2006. How to build your own ‘fancy coffin, Toronto Star.
Images From: http://miscellaneouspics.blogspot.com/2009/10/creative-coffins.html
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