May 24, 2004

Boomer remains

Ken Dyctwald, author of Age Power, says


    Boomers didn't just eat food -- they transformed the snack, restaurant and supermarket industries.
    Boomers didn't just wear clothes -- they transformed the fashion industry.
    Boomers didn't just date --they transformed sex roles and practices
    Boomers didn't just go to work -- they transformed the workplace

So what will they do with Death and Dying? Here are some earlier clues

If you love jewelry, you can extract the carbon from a boomer's cremated remains and turn it into a diamond, a Life Gem.

If you're an environmentalist, you can quickly turn the remains of a boomer into compost. The Promessa process freezes a corpse to minus 321 Fahrenheight in a liquid nitrogen bath, breaks the brittle body into a rough powder with mechanical vibration, and then dehydrates what remains into a pink-beige powder. The compost-loving inventor, Swedish biologist Susanne Wiigh, says  "For me, it's really romantic. It smells good. It feels like gold." The compost can feed plants and shrubs planted by the dead person's family. When a father dies, we can say, 'The same molecules that made up Daddy also built this plant,' " said Mrs. Wiigh.

Don't laugh. The Industrial-gas company AGA Gas, part of Germany's Linde group, has invested in the idea, taking a controlling stake of 53 percent in Promessa. The company has already filed for 35 patents.

But, if you want to transport a boomer's remains and you think the cardboard box the funeral home supplies is tacky and you know that anything fancier won't make it through airport security, try the silk urns you can get from
Renaissance Urn

Posted by Jill Fallon at May 24, 2004 8:32 PM | Permalink