The Circle of Life

I've mentioned that weird thoughts have a way of rolling around in my head. Here's the most recent:

I've been more concerned with the planet and how we are abusing it. Consequently, I've been reading about things that upset the natural balance of the ecosystems and how the earth resolves the imbalances. Occasionally humans will try to intervene and correct some of the problems we have caused, but our solutions often address the problems from our perspective, not from a save the earth perspective.

Anyway -- from somewhere came this thought about a scene in the Lion King. Mufasa is explaining to young Simba about the circle of life. He says that even though they (lions) eat the antelope, when they (again, lions) die their bodies turn to grass and the antelope eat the grass--or something like that.
But that doesn't happen in the human circle -- at least, not anymore.

Our bodies are not left to decompose and return minerals and nutrients to the soil. We pump them full of chemicals, seal them in a casket, seal the casket in a concrete burial vault, and finally buried in the earth where they will eventually decompose but still remain isolated from adding our basic elements back into the earth's ecosystem.

Weird, huh?

Burial vaults have only been used for a hundred years or so, and primarily serve to keep cemetery grounds level by not allowing the ground to collapse as the casket and body decay. I imagine that cremation has a negative impact on the atmosphere from the burning part, but at least the elements can be reintroduced into the environment in some fashion -- spreading or burying the ashes in some manner. There are now several companies that offer to make bio-pods from your ashes and create an urn with a tree or potted plant that can be replanted for a memorial. Or you can even have your ashes compressed into a diamond or jewel that can be worn or handed down for generations.

Personally, I kind of like the tree idea.
I mean, since dumping my corpse into a ditch or burying it in the backyard isn't really an option.
Anyway -- just another weird thought.

And since you're already singing the song in your head, here it is with the video intro to the animated movie version.

https://youtu.be/Zn_qirpdBag?t=35

John