We cling to the enduring strength of stone to fight the fear of being forgotten.
So please take a moment to remember:
Robert K. King
Died August 2, 1886
Aged 71 Years
Minerva H.
His Wife
Died March 22, 1913
Aged 93 Years
Such a grand stone for a simple place among the corn. Gothic arches in a land of barns and calloused hands. Who were the Kings? For in their memory, their monument truly reigns.
(Unmarked rural cemetery, Wayne County, Pennsylvania)
21 comments:
Awesome tombstone. Very cool pic. =D
"We cling to the enduring strength of stone to fight the fear of being forgotten."
I like that. Cemeteries can be fascinating places.
Beautiful tombstone and I agree, cemeteries are always fascinating.
Very, very cool tombstone!
Beautiufl tombstone!! I agree too cemeteries are fascinating.
I love these 'take time to remember' posts.
Kelly, one of these days I'm going to post what the locals were doing when I was wandering around their cemetery. :)
Sandra, check out the other cemetery posts in my archives sometime. They're listed in my index of select posts to the right.
Jane, maybe we'll see some more cemeteries on Emphera?
Robin, thanks. :)
BeadinggalinMS, the motif is interesting. I wonder if the center object signifies an urn.
M.G., I do too. If the snow stays away, I can get a few more.
I often ponder, as I gaze at a gothic monument to death, why a person chooses such, as thier last statement to the world. I think thier fear is their inevitable weakened grasp on the material world.
It is my hope that my writing will endure after my body is cremated and spread over Lake Michigan. I do not seek nor need a monument. Immortality is not for the living...
R.J., thank you for returning the visit!
The hope to live a little beyond my life is one of the reasons I write also. Of course, all strategies for immortality are doomed. Stone flakes away. Writing is lost or falls from fashion. In these posts, I'm just trying to give a little more life to a few of the multitude who have passed from memory.
I think remind of past generations is a very noble and kind gesture. The monuments of the past are truly beautiful macabe art form.
Does really good writing ever fall out of fashion?
Can we attain it? Ah, we can only hope and write...
Was it Hemmingway who said that he only competed with dead authors?
This one is very nice, jason. :)
R.J. Baker, yes, we can hope. Glimmers of people have survived two millenia. Homer. Virgil. Folks like that. I'm all for taking them on. Why aim low?
Jeff, thanks. Hey, do you think we might work out a joint venture between JNEP and CONI (Clarity of Night Industries)? I'm thinking of a reality series: Pimp My Tombstone. (Sorry, it's been a long day).
Jason-to me it looks like an urn.
"to fight the fear of being forgotten"
An accurate way to describe the need to leave something behind, and the fear of disappearing forever.
BeadinggalinMS, yes, I agree. And I even have a previous post of the symbolism of the urn!
Mermaid, it's a powerful drive for us. Children are an essential part of it, I believe.
That is gorgeous! Too bad all I can afford to have is a post-it note. =)
Livewire, I have this image of the gravedigger looking around in panic for something to stick the note to. :D
I also love cemetery pix... Find them fascinating.
Except I still get sad when I see a child's grave. Even if the grave is 238 years old.
The rest of graves, I find pretty neat. Just the way we memorialize people.
Cool post.
Adam
Adam, thank you for the visit! I'm fascinated how blog circles form, then intersect. I credit M.G. Tarquini for this one.
Yes, child graves have a way of pulling all the heat from your body. I have a particularly poignant remembrance post I want to do concerning children, but my camera ran out of power before I was quite finished. I have to stop back at that particular cemetery before it's ready.
BTW--you can peruse past cemetery posts in the "Index of Select Posts" link to the right.
i was coming out of petsmart today and suddenly found myself wishing you could somehow have a coffee table type book of your photos and your personal comments. i have no idea who would publish such a book, but i don't know anything about photo books. and i really don't know why i thought of that as i came out of petsmart. maybe because we haven't seen the sun here in over two weeks, and everything had a soft, hazy look to it.
Anne, what a nice thing to say! Thank you. I would love to do a book like that. My only regret would be having to keep material just for the book and not share it here. I'm also touched that a thought about me and this site occured to you out in the world. You made my morning. :)
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