Some people are committed to the ground in the hopes of an eventual resurrection. And then some are committed to the ice. Cryogenics, it’s called, or “Cryonics.” The thinking goes like this: The malady that kills you today may not be curable. Today. But a few years from now, or a few centuries, no problem. Thus you get yourself put on ice until that glorious day arrives. Then they thaw you out and cure you. There may even come a day, so the reasoning goes, that death itself is curable. That’s something worth waiting for, surely. Ergo, to the ice you go. You can either have your entire body frozen, which is more expensive, or just your head, i.e. your brain. Because one day our technology will have advanced so far that not having a body won’t be much of an issue, either.
It’s fascinating, and not all together illogical. It does raise some intriguing questions, though. What happens to a soul when a dead body is frozen? Is it trapped there in the ice? If not, what happens then if someday the body IS thawed out and resurrected, but the soul has long since vamoosed? A living body with no soul! Have they created a vampire? Or worse, a Republican? And theologically-speaking, is a person depriving himself of the bliss of Heaven or the next rung on the reincarnation ladder by choosing to preserve his mortal flesh? The old “If I can’t take it with me then I ain’t goin’” mentality? Ice, ice, baby!