Anna and her husband were updating their will and he announced to her that he wants to be buried at sea. For some reason this is his dream, but Anna feels like its going to be a lot of work. If he’s dead, does it even really matter? But if she tells him yes and she doesn’t do it, is that bad karma? Is it too much to ask of your widow to be buried at sea? Or should she be a “good wife” and follow his final wishes?
Jonathan: We’ve got Anna on for panic button. And Anna your problem is that it says your husband is not dead. What’s your point?
Anna: Yeah. He is not dead. He’s very much alive.
Jonathan: Okay.
Anna: However, we just updated our wills. And when he does die, he told me he wanted to be buried at sea.
Jonathan: Okay. I don’t even know what that really means. I guess they put you in a bag and dump you off of a boat?
Anna: Yeah. See, I didn’t really know what it meant either. But I just said, yeah, sure, whatever. Okay. But I researched it. Yeah. And it’s very intricate. Very expensive.
Jonathan: Yeah. It seems like it would be.
Anna: And there’s a lot of paperwork. And so while originally I said yes, whatever you want, you know, it’s your life, right? I’ve kind of been lying to him and just saying that that’s going to happen. But I’m not going to do that.
Jonathan: You’re not doing it. And this isn’t something imminent, right?
Anna: No.
Jonathan: But you’re sure that he’s going to die before you?
Anna: Yeah. I mean, I take care of myself.
Jonathan: All right, so your problem is that your husband says, when I die, I want to be buried at sea. And you’re like, Sure, whatever, honey. I’ll do that. Do you think a lot of couples do this? They just humor each other about what they when they die? What’s going to happen at the end? Because I’ll be honest with you, my wife and I have had this discussion. She wants to donate her body to science. And I’m like, Sure, if you go before me, I’ll totally donate it. I’m not donating her bio.
Anna: OK
Jonathan: That’s not happening. Not having her hacked up by a bunch of pre-med students at some college. I saw what happens to it. I don’t know if you follow the news here, but at Harvard, the guys were literally just taking body parts home and hanging out with them. We’re not doing that. So I’ve been lying to her this whole time about it. So what are you worried about here?
Anna: On the radio?
Jonathan: Yeah. She knows. But what are you worried about? That you’re lying to him? But who’s going to know?
Anna: I mean. Right. But morally, is there something wrong? Am I going to go to hell for this? Him. You know?
