A Body. Or Maybe Not.

Now I understand why some detest the idea and the execution of cremation. 

It's inhumane. It's like putting someone, a loved one, in the fires of hell even before God's judgement as to where they will be spending the rest of their eternal life. Like a last punishment but you're the vigilante.

That is if you believe in heaven and hell, and God as the Almighty Being. And ultimately, at least for me, if you believe and see that the body being incinerated is not just a body.

That it's still alive. That it's a vessel full of memories and life. When in fact, technically, it's just a vessel of bones. Lying in front of you. Stiff. Eyes closed. Ready to be placed in the furnace. To be eaten by flames in one to two hours.

And as fire engulfs the body, slowly, in an hour, the air would change. The smell of smoke will envelope the enclosed viewing room. Some would use the window or the screen to view the process. Some will watch or have a brief look at it. Some may just turn their heads or leave the room.

Some may not stomach viewing it. (Because why would someone want to see or choose their loved one to be eaten by fire?) With or without the window or screen, in the room, you'll feel like you're also inside the furnace, experiencing what the body is going through. The difference, you can feel it. The body, I doubt. Lastly, before the body is enclosed to an urn, the remaining bones will be turned into a fine powder through grinding. Burned. Pulverized. Into specks of ash. The body, which is no longer a body but a collection of ash, will shed a lot of weight. A lot.

Granny's remains were cremated a day after she died. Her lifeless body laid on a cot of some sort. No coffin. They decided to donate it. Her face was made up. She looked the same during the last wedding, which made me smirk. Then her bones. Then her ashes. Or her being a lump of ash weighing around 1.9 kilos. 

Again, it's inhumane. 

But the "inhumane" doesn't tick me. I still want to be cremated when my time comes.

Perhaps to save space. Perhaps for people to stop looking at my lifeless body through a glass in a box. Perhaps for people to just sit right away during the wake. If there'd be a wake.

Or perhaps, because I'm just a body by then. Nothing more.

I wrote this prior asking Google why people oppose cremation. And then I learned it has something to do with religion. If there's no body, there's no way to be resurrected. (But God moves in mysterious ways, can't He really do something about the ashes? Will He ask the ashes or the souls if they want to be resurrected before doing so? Then at what point does the 'eternal life' begin?) Then I saw a meme about life after death that says along the lines of, I'll go through this again? And it makes sense, doesn't it? Then my Reels feed suddenly showed me a content educating viewers how cremation is done.