We've had the neat idea of fireworks scattering the ashes of a loved one.
My variation is less exuberant. Launch a very modestly colored helium balloon, in which you have first put the ashes, to high altitudes. Attach a recuperable camera.
Launch right before dusk or dawn. When the balloon reaches its maximum altitude and plops, the camera takes pictures of the ashes gently flowing into the atmosphere. (winds are calm at 40km altitude).
The scene will be beautiful and symbolic, with a sinking or rising sun, and with the kind earth and its beautiful landscape clearly visible as if seen from near space.
A nice way to say goodbye. And not as expensive as scattering the ashes in space, which may also be too techno for people who want the symbolism of a quiet passage.
Gently glowing Sun - mother earth below - floating ashes - iris blue with dark touches.-- django, Aug 17 2004 Somewhat related idea http://www.halfbake...l_20Resting_20PlaceeThermal Resting Place [theircompetitor, Oct 04 2004] Yes! It's like in cartoons, where somebody holds too many helium balloons and floats away...There's no way for me to acheive that in life. (no, a hot air balloon is not the same)-- echo, Aug 17 2004 I'll take that when I die. It sure beats an expensive box with weeds on top.-- adamosity, Aug 17 2004 very poetic.
<guilty schoolboy snigger>presumably you meant that the balloon pops not 'plops'</gss>-- dobtabulous, Aug 18 2004 Somewhere in the deserts of Iraq.....
"Hey, what is this black stuff all over our food?"
"Oh, pay no attention, it's just burnt fallout particles of [django]."-- destructionism, Aug 18 2004 destructionism, although I posted this idea of the cold, blue higher spheres, I myself prefer to be ritually thrown into the hot red of an active volcano, by my friends, to be swallowed by the earth...-- django, Aug 18 2004 [django], I boned it. It's nothing personal - - I just think the camera kills the majesty of the idea. It steals the beauty of gentle, upward, drifting into the great beyond, turning a mourning ritual into what sounds like a publicity event.
(I do believe that every bone deserves an explanation, and will happily give it if asked. I voted without providing feedback was because many annotes recently seem like disagreements that turn into outright argument. I wanted to speak my piece with my vote and then let it alone instead of dealing in argument.)-- contracts, Aug 18 2004 [django] If they can find enough of my ashes from the wreckage, well, I really haven't thought that far into it.-- destructionism, Aug 18 2004 contracts, you're right, the camera still is too tech, but we, mortals, have this bizarre urge to capture everything in images, don't we?-- django, Aug 18 2004 I don't, [django], but many people do. For instance, in my opinion, I can think of nothing less romantic, respectful or intimate than some fat greasy guy with a child-molester moustache taking pictures of me and my bride-to-be during our ceremony.-- contracts, Aug 18 2004 Ah, he is now one with Buddha's bellybutton lint.-- dpsyplc, Aug 18 2004 I am <expletive deleted> getting WHAT?!?! No, no, no, you <insults deleted>. It was merely an example. <edit> True, but I thought that was because smokers stuck together! He's 22? Why, he's almost over the hill!! </edit>-- contracts, Aug 18 2004 random, halfbakery