More practical option

The news that cremation has given the coffin-making business stiff competition (10/30/17) is understandable.

Why donate so much money to the dead when the living need so much more? In Germany and most other European countries, cremation is already the rule, not the exception. It has practical reasons, with many people today having little time to maintain grave care. An urn is a more practical option.

It is important that a new burial culture be adopted in the Philippines, too. Families should not be in debt because of a funeral. They owe nothing but love to the dead, and money can be given only to the living, not to the dead.

As the ancient Greek philosopher Epicurus said: “Death does not concern us, because as long as we exist, death is not here. And when it does come, we no longer exist.”

JÜRGEN SCHÖFER, PhD, [email protected]