“Earth to earth, ashes to ashes, dust to dust” or so the prayer goes. The truth is we are all of the earth and to it we will all, in our own way, return. A few months back Maggie, my mother and Baby Q held a small ceremony where we buried Quincy’s placenta under a freshly planted avocado tree on our property. Until then, the placenta lived in a dark, cold corner of our freezer like an inmate awaiting his judgment.
It took time for us to figure out what to do with it. Research told us there are benefits in consuming it. And whilst we respect any intrepid soul capable of such a practical solution, neither of our bellies were strong enough to stomach such a meal. Our solution was to plant it under a new fruit tree. But I drug my feet on making it happen. For whatever reason, I was more comfortable leaving it hidden away in our freezer – still attached to us in its own cold, sterile cell.
Perhaps I was unwilling to let go. To come to terms with the fact that I would have to bury this organic artifact created in my wife’s body with the sole purpose of nourishing my son in his primordial phase of existence. As unprepared to bury it as I was to bury my father. Afraid of the finality. The kind of finality that comes only from funerals.
It wasn’t much. Maggie prayed and offered her thanks to the miracle that is creation. Baby Q cooed as my mother rocked him sweetly in the damp, post-rain air. Three generations of a family existing on this earth together for a time. Adding this piece of Maggie back to the earth from whence it came. To feed an avocado tree for a time as it fed my son for a time.
Our research taught us that most placentas are disposed of as medical waste. In our clean, modern society we’ve forgotten that biological life is messy. We’ve forgotten that death can foster new life. This is why food waste is the number one material in America’s landfills, accounting for 25% of all municipal solid waste. We remember “ashes to ashes, dust to dust,” but we’ve forgotten that above all is “earth to earth”.
