Do-it-yourself funerals

On the one hand, Americans find more and more of their experiences "mediated," observes the Good magazine contributor David Pescovitz (better known as co-editor of Boing Boing): We buy things online rather than face-to-face with a merchant, and we socialize online. On the other hand, partly as compensation, we are increasingly in search of "authentic" experiences, which can mean something as simple as learning a craft, or a musical instrument, or growing your own vegetables.

The latest frontier in the expanding DIY universe? Do-it-yourself funerals, including "after-death home care." Pescovitz notes that manuals for constructing coffins are proliferating on the Internet and that the writer Max Alexander lovingly recounted fashioning one for his father-in-law in the March issue of Smithsonian -- and also tending to the man's body. (The officials in the Maine town where Alexander and his wife held the home funeral were utterly flummoxed by the family's declining to use a funeral home, which was perfectly legal but unheard of.) A Maryland-based nonprofit group, Crossings, promotes the trend, advocating for "the integration of dying and after-death care back into our family and community life." The group is quick to cite the chemical ickiness of the embalming process (which can be skipped if the viewing and burial are handled swiftly).

But "while green is good," Pescovitz writes, "what DIY funerals really offer is personalization, customization, and the embodiment of emotion through an authentic experience." Plus no little cost savings. Alexander observes, in Smithsonian, that the average American family spends $6,500 on a funeral, or 13 percent of average family income. Those figures would flabbergast most of the world's citizens, he notes. For the coffin he built, Alexander went to Home Depot and spent $90.98.

(Image from Good magazine. Check out, too, Good's rendering of what the instructions for an Ikea coffin might look like.)

NOTE, 3/26: I originally misspelled "Pescovitz."