JOURNAL 223 - Magazine Writing Blog Post #5
TOPIC: What do you think your first quote is and why?
I think there are two ways my story can go:
I can maybe start and end with these quotes from expert Lee Webster:
“Why wouldn’t we be [benefitting the earth]? We’re organic beings that are feeding the soil. When we study livestock burial, it’s very clear that the soil nutrients are abundant around area where animals have been buried. We do find this in green burial cemeteries too, because you’ll notice the grass is a little greener after a period of time.”
“What really convinces them is when they attend a green burial of any kind, and they look at it and see how simple it is, how important it is and how it presents an opportunity for family members to participate and feel really invested in. Families and friends carry the body in and lower it into the grave. They fill the grave. They perform their own ceremonies around this, they direct themselves. This is a very family directed event. Once people experience that one time, they go, ‘I thought I was here for the environment. I’m really here for my family.’ It’s a very powerful thing.”
2. I can also start and end with these quotes from the general manager at Mount Sinai, Randy Schwab:
“People are going to choose natural or green burial because it fits with, physiologically, the way that they view their place in the ecosystem of the world. There’s kind of a thought in Judaism, and other religions as well, that you return to the earth from where you came. That’s why this is appealing to a lot of the public—you are literally returning to the earth.”
I am not 100% sure about my first quote but I know I like this as a possible last quote: “It’s just a very different approach that we think will be successful for us because it’s what our clients have been asking about. They want something that is different, more natural looking. So this is a way to meet them where they are.”
