Prayables | scattered seeds 🌱

Published: Mon, 08/07/23

Monday August 7, 2023

When you realize there is nothing lacking, the whole world belongs to you.
Lao Tzu

Proverbs 11:25 The generous will prosper. Those who refresh others will themselves be refreshed.

I come to You asking for renewal. A new me, not the old one, who is sucked up in dreary repetition. The new me who is not people-pleasing first but God-pleasing always. Help me live passionately, sincerely, and true to my potential. Praise to You, dear God, who has the power to transform me.

Memories are like scattered seeds that bloom forever and never die. Cherish blessed moments past and present.

TURNING MOM INTO MULCH

"Dead bodies are not an underutilized plant fertilizer. Rather, they are the sacred remnant of our sacred souls."

Q: What is your opinion on the new method that speeds up this very process in a natural way, “Human Composting." What more could one’s end bring to a new beginning in and amongst the organic soil and all the wonder it can provide to trees, flora, and food alike? Regards.
— S. Farmingdale, NY

A: My first thought is that burial is what we do to our dear ones whose memory we never want to lose. Composting is what we do to our garbage whose memory we definitely want to lose. Confusing garbage and grandpa just seems wrong to me.

There is also to my mind a misplaced utilitarian impulse in the practice of human composting. Dead bodies are not an underutilized plant fertilizer. Rather, they are the sacred remnant of our sacred souls and as such ought to be shown the respect we reserve for all of God’s creation. Reverence is not a utilitarian act.

The point of cemeteries is to set apart places of death from places of life. The point of composting is to feed places of life. Confusing the two is spiritually corrosive.

I think the creation of human beings was a miracle. I think that growing plants and keeping them fed and watered is a sacred task of growing things. I just cannot get myself to the place where I view human composting as a new form of Miracle Gro.

– Rabbi Gellman