TED英語(yǔ)演講：塵歸塵 土歸土
本期TED演講者Caitlin Doughty女士從事殯葬業(yè)多年，她指出現(xiàn)行殯葬業(yè)內(nèi)的“美化，消毒和保護(hù)”體系存在諸多弊端，我們需要一套新的體系讓人死后回歸本質(zhì)，相融于土地，而不要成為土地的敵人。下面是小編為大家收集關(guān)于TED英語(yǔ)演講：塵歸塵 土歸土，歡迎借鑒參考。
演說(shuō)題目：A burial practice that nourishes the planet Caitlin Doughty
演說(shuō)者：Caitlin Doughty
When I die, I would like for my body to be laid out to be eaten by animals. Having your body laid out to be eaten by animals is not for everyone.
Maybe you have already had the end-of-life talk with your family and decided on, I don't know, cremation. And in the interest of full disclosure, what I am proposing for my dead body is not strictly legal at the moment, but it's not without precedent.
We've been laying out our dead for all of human history; it's call exposure burial. In fact, it's likely happening right now as we speak. In the mountainous regions of Tibet, they practice "sky burial," a ritual where the body is left to be consumed by vultures. In Mumbai, in India, those who follow the Parsi religion put their dead in structures called "Towers of Silence." These are interesting cultural tidbits, but they just haven't really been that popular in the Western world -- they're not what you'd expect.
In America, our death traditions have come to be chemical embalming, followed by burial at your local cemetery, or, more recently, cremation. I myself, am a recent vegetarian, which means I spent the first 30 years or so of my life frantically inhaling animals -- as many as I could get my hands on.Why, when I die, should they not have their turn with me?
Am I not an animal? Biologically speaking, are we not all, in this room, animals? Accepting the fact that we are animals has some potentially terrifying consequences. It means accepting that we are doomed to decay and die, just like any other creature on earth.
For the last nine years, I've worked in the funeral industry, first as a crematory operator, then as a mortician and most recently, as the owner of my own funeral home. And I have some good news: if you're looking to avoid the whole "doomed to decay and die" thing: you will have all the help in the world in that avoidance from the funeral industry.
It's a multi-billion-dollar industry, and its economic model is based on the principle of protection, sanitation and beautification of the corpse. Whether they mean to or not, the funeral industry promotes this idea of human exceptionalism. It doesn't matter what it takes, how much it costs, how bad it is for the environment, we're going to do it because humans are worth it! It ignores the fact that death can be an emotionally messy and complex affair, and that there is beauty in decay -- beauty in the natural return to the earth from whence we came. Now, I don't want you to get me wrong -- I absolutely understand the importance of ritual, especially when it comes to the people that we love.But we have to be able to create and practice this ritual without harming the environment, which is why we need new options.
So let's return to the idea of protection, sanitation and beautification. We'll start with a dead body. The funeral industry will protect your dead body by offering to sell your family a casket made of hardwood or metal with a rubber sealant. At the cemetery, on the day of burial, that casket will be lowered into a large concrete or metal vault. We're wasting all of these resources -- concretes, metal, hardwoods --hiding them in vast underground fortresses. When you choose burial at the cemetery, your dead body is not coming anywhere near the dirt that surrounds it. Food for worms you are not.
Next, the industry will sanitize your body through embalming: the chemical preservation of the dead.This procedure drains your blood and replaces it with a toxic, cancer-causing formaldehyde. They say they do this for the public health because the dead body can be dangerous, but the doctors in this room will tell you that that claim would only apply if the person had died of some wildly infectious disease, like Ebola. Even human decomposition, which, let's be honest, is a little stinky and unpleasant, is perfectly safe. The bacteria that causes disease is not the same bacteria that causes decomposition.
Finally, the industry will beautify the corpse. They'll tell you that the natural dead body of your mother or father is not good enough as it is. They'll put it in makeup. They'll put it in a suit. They'll inject dyes so the person looks a little more alive -- just resting. Embalming is a cheat code, providing the illusion that death and then decay are not the natural end for all organic life on this planet.
Now, if this system of beautification, sanitation, protection doesn't appeal to you, you are not alone.There is a whole wave of people -- funeral directors, designers, environmentalists -- trying to come up with a more eco-friendly way of death. For these people, death is not necessarily a pristine, makeup, powder-blue tuxedo kind of affair. There's no question that our current methods of death are not particularly sustainable, what with the waste of resources and our reliance on chemicals. Even cremation, which is usually considered the environmentally friendly option, uses, per cremation, the natural gas equivalent of a 500-mile car trip.
So where do we go from here? Last summer, I was in the mountains of North Carolina, hauling buckets of wood chips in the summer sun. I was at Western Carolina University at their "Body Farm,"more accurately called a "human decomposition facility." Bodies donated to science are brought here, and their decay is studied to benefit the future of forensics. On this particular day, there were 12 bodies laid out in various stages of decomposition. Some were skeletonized, one was wearing purple pajamas, one still had blonde facial hair visible. The forensic aspect is really fascinating, but not actually why I was there. I was there because a colleague of mine named Katrina Spade is attempting to create a system, not of cremating the dead, but composting the dead.
She calls the system "Recomposition," and we've been doing it with cattle and other livestock for years. She imagines a facility where the family could come and lay their dead loved one in a nutrient-rich mixture that would, in four-to-six weeks, reduce the body -- bones and all -- to soil. In those four-to-six weeks, your molecules become other molecules; you literally transform.
How would this fit in with the very recent desire a lot of people seem to have to be buried under a tree,or to become a tree when they die? In a traditional cremation, the ashes that are left over -- inorganic bone fragments -- form a thick, chalky layer that, unless distributed in the soil just right, can actually hurt or kill the tree. But if you're recomposed, if you actually become the soil, you can nourish the tree,and become the post-mortem contributor you've always wanted to be -- that you deserve to be.
So that's one option for the future of cremation. But what about the future of cemeteries? There are a lot of people who think we shouldn't even have cemeteries anymore because we're running out of land. But what if we reframed it, and the corpse wasn't the land's enemy, but its potential savior? I'm talking about conservation burial, where large swaths of land are purchased by a land trust. The beauty of this is that once you plant a few dead bodies in that land, it can't be touched, it can't be developed on -- hence the term, "conservation burial." It's the equivalent of chaining yourself to a tree post-mortem -- "Hell no, I won't go! No, really -- I can't. I'm decomposing under here."
Any money that the family gives to the cemetery would go back into protecting and managing the land. There are no headstones and no graves in the typical sense. The graves are scattered about the property under elegant mounds, marked only by a rock or a small metal disk, or sometimes only locatable by GPS. There's no embalming, no heavy, metal caskets. My funeral home sells a few caskets made out of things like woven willow and bamboo, but honestly, most of our families just choose a simple shroud. There are none of the big vaults that most cemeteries require just because it makes it easier for them to landscape. Families can come here; they can luxuriate in nature; they can even plant a tree or a shrub, though only native plants to the area are allowed. The dead then blend seamlessly in with the landscape.
There's hope in conservation cemeteries. They offer dedicated green space in both urban and rural areas. They offer a chance to reintroduce native plants and animals to a region. They offer public trails, places for spiritual practice, places for classes and events -- places where nature and mourning meet. Most importantly, they offer us, once again, a chance to just decompose in a hole in the ground. The soil, let me tell you, has missed us.
I think for a lot of people, they're starting to get the sense that our current funeral industry isn't really working for them. For many of us, being sanitized and beautified just doesn't reflect us. It doesn't reflect what we stood for during our lives. Will changing the way we bury our dead solve climate change? No. But it will make bold moves in how we see ourselves as citizens of this planet. If we can die in a way that is more humble and self-aware, I believe that we stand a chance.
Thank you.(Applause)
我希望死后把遺體留給動(dòng)物果腹。并非人人都能接受留遺體給動(dòng)物果腹。
也許你已經(jīng)與家人談妥后事，也許選擇的是火葬。說(shuō)實(shí)話，我的遺體處理計(jì)劃目前尚未完全合法，但并非首例。
這種處理尸體的方式 一向存在人類的歷史里，稱為曝葬。事實(shí)上，也許此刻某處 正在進(jìn)行曝葬。西藏高原的人們「天葬」，把尸體留給禿鷹進(jìn)食。在印度孟買，拜火教徒將死者遺體置入「寂靜之塔」。這些有趣的文化花絮 在西方世界并不風(fēng)行，因?yàn)椴环洗蟊姷念A(yù)期。
傳統(tǒng)上，美國(guó)人先化學(xué)防腐處理遺體，然后下葬在墓園，或者近期火化較為流行。我最近開始吃素，換言之，我曾大啖肉食，約三十年之久，不放過(guò)任何觸手可及的肉食。難道我死后不應(yīng)該輪到動(dòng)物吃我嗎?
我不也是動(dòng)物嗎?從生物的角度來(lái)講，在座每一位不都是動(dòng)物嗎?接受我們是動(dòng)物這個(gè)事實(shí)可能有可怕的后果。意味著我們得接受必然會(huì)衰老和死亡，如同地球上其他所有的生物一般。
過(guò)去九年我從事殯葬行業(yè)，一開始是火化操作員，后來(lái)承攬喪事，最近我開了自己的葬儀社。我有好個(gè)消息： 如果你想避開命定的衰老和死亡，世上既有的殯葬業(yè)會(huì)幫你避開這結(jié)局。
這個(gè)數(shù)十億美元產(chǎn)業(yè)，經(jīng)濟(jì)模式建立在 保護(hù)、衛(wèi)生與美化遺體的準(zhǔn)則上。有意或無(wú)意，殯葬業(yè)者鼓吹人類是特例，不計(jì)代價(jià)、不管花多少錢、不管危害環(huán)境的程度，我們硬要如此，因?yàn)槿祟愊碛刑貦?quán)! 如此做忽略了 死亡有著情緒混亂和復(fù)雜的本質(zhì)，也忽略了腐朽有著腐朽的美，美在它自然回歸大地，我們的起源地。別誤會(huì)我的意思，我完全理解儀式的重要性，尤其是為了心愛之人所舉行的儀式。但前提是我們必須在不傷害環(huán)境的基礎(chǔ)上 創(chuàng)造并施行這類儀式。這是為何我們需要新的喪葬選項(xiàng)。
讓我們回到保護(hù)、 衛(wèi)生與美化的概念上。從遺體談起。殯葬業(yè)處理遺體的現(xiàn)行方式是 向家屬兜售用硬木或金屬制成，用橡膠密封的棺材。下葬那天，棺材會(huì)被垂降置入墓園里的大混凝土 或金屬墓室里。我們浪費(fèi)混凝土、 金屬、硬木等資源，把它們埋藏到寬闊的地下堡壘里。葬在墓園里的遺體 根本碰不到任何周遭的泥土，不會(huì)成為蟲子的食物。
其次，殯葬業(yè)防腐處理遺體，用化學(xué)藥物保存。過(guò)程是排干全身的血液，改為注入有毒、致癌的甲醛。他們的說(shuō)法是為了公眾的健康著想，因?yàn)樗朗喈?dāng)危險(xiǎn);但是在這現(xiàn)場(chǎng)的醫(yī)生會(huì)說(shuō)，只在那人死于傳染病，例如伊波拉感染之類的情形才危險(xiǎn)。老實(shí)說(shuō)，即使發(fā)臭、不愉快的腐爛尸體 仍絕對(duì)安全。致病的細(xì)菌 和分解腐尸的細(xì)菌全然不同。
最后，殯葬業(yè)會(huì)美化尸體。他們說(shuō)讓令尊或令堂的遺體 留在的自然狀態(tài)不好，而會(huì)用化妝和衣裝來(lái)美化，會(huì)注射染料 好讓死者看起來(lái)像是活著，只是在休息而已。防腐是造成錯(cuò)覺的欺騙，它遮掩地球上所有生命的自然終結(jié)乃是死亡和腐朽。
如果這樣的美化、衛(wèi)生和保護(hù)方式 沒打動(dòng)你，你并不孤單。有一大群人，包括喪葬執(zhí)行者、 設(shè)計(jì)者、環(huán)保主義者，正嘗試找出友善 生態(tài)環(huán)境的喪葬方式。這些人不認(rèn)為死亡就得用化妝和淺藍(lán)全新的燕尾服等等來(lái)妝點(diǎn)。毫無(wú)疑問 現(xiàn)行處理死亡的方式并不永續(xù)，尤其很浪費(fèi)資源和依賴化學(xué)用品。即使火葬 通常被認(rèn)為是種環(huán)保的選擇，每次火葬消耗掉的天然氣 可以讓汽車行駛五百英里遠(yuǎn)。
接下來(lái)怎么做呢?上個(gè)夏天我在北卡羅萊納州的山上，頂著烈日搬運(yùn)一桶桶的碎木，西卡羅萊納州立大學(xué)的 「人體農(nóng)場(chǎng)」，更精準(zhǔn)的名稱是「人體分解設(shè)施」。捐給科學(xué)的大體被運(yùn)到這里腐爛分解，幫助于將來(lái)的法醫(yī)學(xué)研究。那一天 有十二具腐爛程度不一的大體，有的只剩骨骼，有一具穿著紫色的睡衣，有一具還看得見臉上的金色毛發(fā)。法醫(yī)學(xué)那方面很吸引人，但不是我去那里參與的理由，我因同事卡翠娜·史培德而去那里，她正在創(chuàng)建一個(gè)不火化，而是用遺體做堆肥的殯葬系統(tǒng)。
她取的名字是「重組」，已經(jīng)在牛和其他牲口上 試驗(yàn)了好幾年。她擘畫的設(shè)施，能讓遺屬把死去的親人 安置在一個(gè)富含養(yǎng)分的混合物里，四到六周后，遺體連同骨頭全都分解成土壤。在四到六周里，遺體原先的分子轉(zhuǎn)化成其他的分子，真正是字面上的轉(zhuǎn)化。
這符合和近來(lái)很多人 想要死后樹葬 或幻化為樹的希望嗎?傳統(tǒng)火化后的骨灰，無(wú)機(jī)的骨灰，形成厚厚一層白堊層，如果沒被妥善埋入土里，其實(shí)會(huì)傷害樹或使樹枯死。但是如果你的遺體重組變成真的土壤，能滋養(yǎng)樹木，達(dá)到你死后貢獻(xiàn)的目標(biāo)，貨真價(jià)實(shí)達(dá)到目標(biāo)。
那是火葬之外的另一種選項(xiàng)。未來(lái)的墓園是什么樣子?很多人認(rèn)為未來(lái)不應(yīng)該再有墓園，因?yàn)橥恋匾芽毂晃覀兒谋M了。但如果我們重新定義，遺體不再與土地為敵，反而具有拯救土地的潛力呢?我說(shuō)的是養(yǎng)護(hù)性埋葬，由土地信托購(gòu)下大片的土地。妙在一旦那塊地里埋下了幾具遺體，就不允許或被開發(fā)或被更動(dòng)，因此稱為「養(yǎng)護(hù)性埋葬」。相當(dāng)于你讓遺體和一棵樹綁到一起：「不，我不離開。」 「真的，我離不開。我正在樹下分解?！?/p>
家屬給墓地的每一分錢 都會(huì)被用來(lái)保護(hù)和管理這塊土地。這里不會(huì)有傳統(tǒng)形式的墳?zāi)够蚰贡?。墳?zāi)贡贿m當(dāng)?shù)厣⒉荚?優(yōu)雅的小丘下，只用小小的石頭或金屬片標(biāo)記著，或是僅用 GPS 定位。遺體不經(jīng)防腐處理，不用厚重的金屬棺槨。我的葬儀社賣一些 楊柳和竹子編織成的棺柩，但老實(shí)說(shuō)，大多數(shù)家庭只選用簡(jiǎn)單的裹尸布。沒有大型墓穴，不像那些墓園造大墓穴只為了容易造景。家人能來(lái)這里享受大自然; 甚至能種棵樹或灌木，僅限當(dāng)?shù)氐脑N植栽。這樣死者就完全融入景觀里。
養(yǎng)護(hù)性墓地的前景看好。它們?yōu)槌鞘泻袜l(xiāng)間提供專屬綠地，提供再度引入當(dāng)?shù)貏?dòng)植物的機(jī)會(huì)，提供公共小徑、 靈修場(chǎng)所，提供可上課和聚會(huì)的場(chǎng)地，提供大自然和哀思互相融合的地方。最重要的是再次給了我們?cè)诘氐紫赂癄€分解的機(jī)會(huì)。讓我重申，土壤思念我們。
我認(rèn)為許多人 開始覺得當(dāng)前的殯葬 并不適合他們。被消毒和美化 并不能反映我們當(dāng)中的許多人，不真實(shí)反映我們代表 和擁護(hù)的生命價(jià)值。改變我們下葬的方式能解決氣候變遷嗎?不能，但它將會(huì)是 我們自詡為地球公民的魄力行動(dòng)。如果我們以更簡(jiǎn)約、 更自覺的方式下葬，相信我們有機(jī)會(huì)解決氣候變遷問題。
謝謝。(掌聲)
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