ambiance

What is it about graveyards that is so attractive? I mean, why is it that i can hardly pass a cemetery without wanting to pull over and meander my way through them? Of course, pass one at night and my skin starts to crawl. Thank my over-active imagination and too many horror flicks for that. But, during the day time, it is an almost magnetic draw. Is it the finality of them? No matter what your day, life, or experiences, you cannot dodge this last and final move. How about the tranquility? Carefully manicured lawns, elegant headstones or beautiful estatuary, huge trees casting pleasant and cooling shadows, gorgeous wrought iron fences, running water...all lending a calm and peace that is so often lacking in our lives. How sad that we have to be either dead, or a friend/family member is, before we can experience it. Maybe it is curiousity. I love wandering and reading the eulogies. Seeing if the headstone is for a single individual or for a whole family.

Cemeteries are also interesting in their diversity. You drive through a town, or take a tour of the countryside and you will see quite a difference in styles. Now, most of your older cemeteries (old churches and the like) are the same. Simple, large, with ornate headstones, simple crosses, and mausoleums. Newer ones though are almost always wide open spaces that look like well tended private parks until you realize that you are walking ON the graves b/c you didn't notice the plaques placed into the ground. Both are beautiful, but I think I prefer the old style myself. Maybe it is the ostentatious chunks of marble, finely worked, polished to a sheen.

Yes, I know, a bit of a morbid topic, but one that has been on my mind since Saturday. Funny how death makes you feel your own mortality.