Reply to comment

The conversation of death and living on in the memories of those who knew us reminds me of something a high school teacher of mine once said. We were taking an AP Chemistry prep course during the summer, the last class he taught before he retired. He was an interesting guy. I don't remember the context in which the conversation came up, but he was telling us about a peach tree that he had outside of his house, and that when he died he wanted to be cremated and have his ashes scattered at the base of the peach tree. Why there? Because, as he put it, he would become mixed into the nourishment of the tree, so there would be a bit of him in every peach the tree bore. And then what? Then when his children and grandchildren consumed the fruit they would essentially be consuming him as well and he would be living on through them/with them. And all this was followed by a mischievous sort of laughter.

Hearing his future plans seemed funny in a slightly creepy sort of way (whether he was serious or not I do not know). But just thinking of this makes me think of how we live on through other ways than simply through memories. Once our bodies decompose they return to their purest form and contribute to nature in other ways. In that sense, we never actually leave the earth and continue to exist. While not living and breathing, there is still a presence.