Show Summary:
You care about the earth in life ~ but what about in death? Will your final act be kind to the planet and to those you leave behind? Learn what a truly green funeral is, what is myth and what is truth, with Jeff Jorgenson, Funeral Director, Environmentalist.
New from Brant Huddleston
Show Details:
You care about the earth in life ~ but what about in death? Will your final act be kind to the planet and to those you leave behind? Learn what a truly green funeral is, what is myth and what is truth, the trends and the obstacles in this interview with Jeff Jorgenson of Elemental NW ~ Seattle’s first and only all green funeral home.
In one of those unexpected twists of fate that life tosses our way, Jeff found himself with a newly minted degree in aeronautics, plus a Master of Science in Management, but a job offer with the corporate goliath of the funeral business world. He took the job and paid his dues, opening Elemental to serve a growing niche: a greener, more affordable, collaborative approach to funerals. Today Jeff is one of the leaders in a movement of entrepreneurs who are challenging entrenched systems that are often unaware of their environmental impact, and by doing so has discovered he can also provide a less expensive, more intimate experience for the families he serves.
In this green funeral episode you will learn about:
- The definition of a carbon neutral cremation
- How to spot “greenwashing”
- The business practice of managing a triple bottom line
- Jeff’s YouTube series called “Is it Legal?” with Caitlin Doughty of the Order of the Good Death
- The greenest way to go
- The hybrid cemetery
- The optimal depth for burial
- Why have a vault?
- How not to be selfish
- Where to find a green funeral home from the Green Burial Council
Other "Green" Shows that Might Interest You
- A Natural, Earth Friendly Way to Come Back as a Tree, with Bios Urn Co-Inventor Roger Moline Navarro
- Where, How and Why to Choose a Green Burial with Ann Hoffner, author of "The Natural Burial Cemetery Guide: A State-by-State Guide. (in two parts)
- Going Out Green with Jeff Jorgenson, Director of Elemental NW ~ Seattle’s first and only all green funeral home
- As Below, So Above, with Joe Sehee, Founder of the Green Burial Council (in two parts)
- From Earth to Earth ~ Respectfully Composting Human Remains, with Susanne Wiigh-Mäsak, Founder of Promessa (in two parts)
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I Am a Racist
Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness, and many of our people need it sorely on these accounts. Broad, wholesome, charitable views of men and things cannot be acquired by vegetating in one little corner of the earth all one's lifetime.
Mark Twain
I often hear nowadays, people being accused.
“He’s a racist.”
“She’s a racist.”
“Trump’s a racist.”
“So and so’s a racist.”
What I have yet to hear is: “I am a racist.”
So let me be the first.
I am a racist.
Yes.
I see the ugly thing, creeping around my soul like a roach in the kitchen. I squash it, but sometime later, there it is again.
I know there is a nest somewhere, eggs hatching, a source deep within me, hidden away where it’s easy to deny. There is where I'll find the library of my false beliefs, the lies I tell myself over and over, so often they become grooves cut into my gray matter, like fissures in rock where the water runs down, cutting deeper and deeper, until fissures become swales, and swales become canyons.
When did the first racist raindrop fall? I don’t know. As a child, for sure. How many drops of poison does it take to pollute the vessel of pure water of which we are born? When, exactly, does a person become a racist, and who gets to decide?
I don’t know, but then, neither does anyone else.
I don’t believe in permanence. That’s one thing the Buddhists have taught me.
Everything changes.
We can become aware of that library of false beliefs, that nest of nasties that colors our perception of things, often for the worse. Awareness alone brings change. We can cut new grooves. My challenge as a human being is not to deny that I am a racist, for that would be as foolish as denying I have cancer when I really do. My challenge is, rather, to stop the cancer from metastasizing and poisoning the whole man.
I doubt I will ever fully eradicate my racism. Unfortunately, I suspect some vestige of it will always be with me. But what I can do, and what I do do, is expose myself to experiences that lessen my racism, those being travel, kind and honest conversation, and breaking bread with “the others” whenever I can. These experiences, like wind and rain, smooth rock and, over time, lay low even the highest mountains.
So when I hear the angry crowd shouting, "He’s a racist,” I want to ask:
“Who among you is not a racist? Stand up then and take a bow...for you are surely a god.”
I moved to Substack!
Hi there. If you've read this far, then you enjoy, or are at least intrigued by, my ideas. If you want to learn more, jump over to my new website on Substack, where I continue to write about travel, the second half of life, and other mad musings.
