cemetaries
I loathe cemetaries, at least for anything other than cliche-artsy goth photos. The entire idea behind them, as I understand it, is that they are a place to not so much mourn your dead as to honor them in some form or other.
My most evident argument against cemetaries (other than the enormous amount of space wasted by them) is the idea that the spirits of these individuals linger there, like a vast party of dead people having tea amongst the tombstones. They didn't die there - why would they hang around? Wouldn't they be more apt to haunt the coffee shop they sat for hours listening to their discman? I can't help but think, were I a spirit watching over those I loved, the last place I would want to be is a cemetary. For some reason the image always conjures up someone going to a landfill and nostalgically recalling some item they once loved that eventually wound up there.
The last place I want someone I love to shed tears or think happily upon times we spent together is a stretch of land inhabited by the decaying remains of hundreds of other people who have 'passed on.' It just seems twisted and morbid and a general waste of space. If and when I die, I hope that those who loved me will go places that are beautiful and think of me - a beach, a forest, a vista overlooking the place I called home while I was here, but never, ever a cemetary, because the last place I'll go visiting you is next to a plot of land that houses my former body.
My most evident argument against cemetaries (other than the enormous amount of space wasted by them) is the idea that the spirits of these individuals linger there, like a vast party of dead people having tea amongst the tombstones. They didn't die there - why would they hang around? Wouldn't they be more apt to haunt the coffee shop they sat for hours listening to their discman? I can't help but think, were I a spirit watching over those I loved, the last place I would want to be is a cemetary. For some reason the image always conjures up someone going to a landfill and nostalgically recalling some item they once loved that eventually wound up there.
The last place I want someone I love to shed tears or think happily upon times we spent together is a stretch of land inhabited by the decaying remains of hundreds of other people who have 'passed on.' It just seems twisted and morbid and a general waste of space. If and when I die, I hope that those who loved me will go places that are beautiful and think of me - a beach, a forest, a vista overlooking the place I called home while I was here, but never, ever a cemetary, because the last place I'll go visiting you is next to a plot of land that houses my former body.