Where Left Is Right / The Old Site

I can't swim worth a damn (please, not requesting any remedies for this, I've lived with it for so long that not-swimming feels like second nature). So I've never been all that comfortable around large bodies of water, particularly oceans.

Still, this seemed interesting. The idea is to replace conventional cremation, with the remains being placed into urns for safekeeping, with a cremation after which the remains are mixed into concrete and cast into memorial "reef balls." These are then sunk offshore, where -- well, let them tell you in their own words:

Eternal Reefs began simply. In the late 1980's a pair of college roommates from the University of Georgia often went diving off the Keys in Florida on breaks. Over the years of diving they saw significant deterioration and degradation of the reefs they were visiting. Don Brawley, founder of Eternal Reefs realized the reefs needed help. A decision was made to do something about the reefs' declining health.

Once the friends were out of school they began to talk about what contributions they could make that would help protect and restore these fragile eco-systems. Creating a material and system that would replicate the natural marine environment that supports coral and microorganism development was what they decided to do. And thus the concept of the Reef Ball was formed - to directly rehabilitate and rebuild the dying reefs and to add new habitat to the marine environment.

I share with the bulk of my generation little capacity of thought for the morrow, as the saying goes. So I'm constantly postponing "dealing with" my eventual demise in any way other than the most passive, like via life insurance and such. This does sound like an after-death solution a lefty could love.

On the other hand, the photo of the "military representative" saluting a flag-draped reef ball, "during official Eternal Reefs Military Honors Ceremony," is just a tad disconcerting.