Life After Death?
Before every trip, especially solo ones, my mother goes into a complete panic. It doesn't matter if I'm traveling in the U.S. or overseas. In her mind, there's always an irrational fear that something tragic will happen and her daughter will never return. I can honestly say I don't fear many things in life, and certainly not death. In fact, I spend almost no time thinking about it, yet there are some who expend a lot of thought and money on death and what happens thereafter. One example I encountered during my trip to Israel is the maze of tombs atop Mount of Olives. Rows and rows of monochromatic slates pressed against each other on a sacred site. This is the most ancient and holy place for Jews to be buried, some paying up to $25,000 USD for a slot.
I'm not an expert in Judaism, but it's my understanding that many Jews believe when the Messiah returns the dead will rise from their graves and walk to the holy Temple Mount in Jerusalem's Old City. From this cemetery, that's only a few hundred meters, thus people who are buried here will be amongst the first to greet the Messiah upon his return. I even read that everyone in the cemetery is buried with their feet facing the Temple Mount so they can come straight up on the big day and not have to adjust themselves. Amazing preparation and global positioning! :)
Will there be a second coming and what happens after death? Of course, no one can know for certain, but I thought about it for a brief second when processing this photo. Growing up in a religious school, I was indoctrinated with visions of houses in the sky, pathways paved of gold, and loved ones waiting to embrace me in the shining light. I like to believe it's true, yet my pragmatic side somehow interprets this scenario as a fairy tale. To keep some glimmer of hope alive, I always watch documentaries about near death experiences. People from all over the world who have been unconscious for long periods, or even pronounced dead before resuscitation, recount the same stories. Tales of bright lights, a sense of moving through a tunnel, passageway or staircase, immense warmth and comfort ...all usually explained away by some scientist who focuses on the neurological and biological impacts of death. Or, perhaps we're reincarnated after death and made to walk an entirely different journey in another life? Whatever the case may be, Mount of Olives is the last place I wish to be buried. Just an immense sense of claustrophobia, with one body stacked over the next. It's the same feeling I experience each time I enter the Moscow metro. :) I think my final resting place should be on top of a rural, rolling hill, far away from humanity, in a place where silence and seclusion is the norm.
What do you think happens after our last breath on Earth? Heaven, hell, reincarnation...? Or, do our bones, flesh and ashes simply disintegrate into the ground upon which we spend our entire lives walking?