Live on after death?
Saying goodbye is difficult at times; sometimes, impossible. Or so it seems.
US Urns Online offers a sampling of optional modes that may, or may not, make the transition easier. Much like individuals, it really depends on whether or not one wants to end their life:
Launched into space
TRENDING: America's most dangerous demographic
Have your ashes launched into space! Celestis offers several packages for journeying into the final frontier. From a trip into orbit and back to earth, to a more adventurous journey into deep space.
For the person who was never able to live that childhood dream of space travel, this could be just the ticket – possibly a one way ticket
As a diamond
Life Gem offers the service of having a lock of hair or some of the cremated remains of a loved one turned into a certified diamond.
They offer several different colors, carat sizes and gem cuts, which you can put on display or set into a piece of jewelry.
Tattoo ink
We came across a number of articles about this practice. Have a portion of the remains mixed with the tattoo ink before it is applied to your body. Reportedly there aren't any health concerns.
But you may want to run it by your personal tattoo artist first. Here are some memorial tattoo ideas.
Put into bullets
This is how you want to be remembered, isn't it?
What could be a more practical memorial than a box of ammo?
Your body may be gone, but you don't have to miss next year's hunting trip. Holy Smoke can have your remains put into shotgun, rifle or pistol ammo.
Not quite the old pine box of yesteryear, is it? But nothing seems quite the same. Not even after Keith Richard's publicist ultimately denied that Richards – freaky – supposedly snorted a line of his own father's ashes.
Wrestling with the boys
Would you let your little girl wrestle someone on steroids?
Transgender mania has proved itself problematic – again. Deep in the heart of Texas, Mack Beggs, a 17-year-old living beyond the boundaries of Fort Worth, just wants to have fun – on the wrestling mat. Forbidden by state law from wrestling with boys, the Euless resident has been confined to competing against her own gender. (Beggs has been "transitioning from female to male since late 2015.")
Sounds awful, no? Bigoted, sexist, and fill-in-the-blank. Well, thanks to steroid "therapy," a law intended to safeguard the sexes (and fairness) is veritably clearing the field of competition for the one who would be "himself ... at least, that's how it seemed to parents of those girls competing in last Saturday's wrestling competition where Beggs won the day.
"He (Beggs) says he wants to compete against boys," according to InfoWars, "but isn't allowed to because of University Interscholastic League rules which say he must compete as the gender listed by his birth certificate."
So, what to do? Who is at fault? It hardly seems fair to let young girls compete against anyone fueled by steroids, whatever the medical necessity.
InfoWars reports, "One parent has launched a lawsuit against the League, claiming it is putting girls at risk of 'imminent threat of bodily harm' by allowing Mack to remain in the 110-pound weight class."
What would you do? Whatever your position, there seems to be no holds barred on a future wherein male and female – thanks to drugs and the human drive to forever do what he/she should not – is far more difficult to call.
While you weren't paying attention...
Urinals in women's bathrooms – okay. (Guess that's part of making women more attractive – make them men!)
This happened over Christmas while we were busy with other things:
Hopefully Trump will overturn this one. But who knows?
More "shine-ola" during the penitential season
Ashes to ashes, dust to dust: so goes the verbiage when one receives a cross made of ashes upon their forehead on Ash Wednesday, the historical opener to the Lenten season. Lent derives from the Old English "lencten," meaning spring and a lengthening of days. It is a season of repentance and self-reflection entered into every year by millions in anticipation of Easter Sunday.
Another group, however, would rather sport glitter. Why? Well, to demonstrate how "they" are there to stay and won't be defeated.
That's not quite repentance, properly understood; but like it or not, "gay" glitter may be coming to a church near you. That's right!
It's ashes to ashes for humanity. Remember, death is real, God is good, and repentance is the way the two should meet. Others, however, will promote glitter ashes to express ... something. I'm not quite sure. Parity, the New York LBGTQ group promoting the glitter for Ash Wednesday, says they are on board with repentance. The advocacy group is, however, quite decidedly teasing out a particular group of folks, and tendencies, to be indestructible glitter.
New Now Next says:
Many LGBT Christians struggle with finding a church that fully accepts them, but a new twist on an old religious tradition is hoping to bridge the gap between the two communities.
The faith-based LGBT advocacy group Parity is calling for Christians who support LGBT rights to wear "glitter ash" on their foreheads for Ash Wednesday on March 1, instead of the usual gray ash that is used to symbolize repentance each year.
"This is a way for queer Christians and queer-positive persons of faith to say, 'We are here,'" Parity's Executive Director Marian Edmonds-Allen told USA Today. "It is also a way for other people to be a witness to that and be in solidarity with them."
The new "twist," however, is a 180-degree spin from what the ritual is supposed to represent. And acknowledging the human condition is not to be pointedly "queer" positive – or pro-anything else in specific - but to understand that we all have a cross to carry, one under which we frequently fall. But all are encouraged to persevere. That is, we are to acknowledge our weakness and try to engage grace and our own free will to choose that which is right and good; not seek support around a particular issue which, when you get right down to it, only succeeds in dividing us in our minds from the rest of mankind.
So, you can keep your glitter. I'll take ash.
Take a peek at the video clip below to get the straight dope; not a jab at those suffering under a weighty burden, but just a reality check to bridge the gap between truth and grandstanding glitter.