Graveyard Spelunker 8/19/2000

IIIIII have just noticed something, as I finally make it back to my diary after vacationing in other people's lives for a while.

I have this obsession with death at the moment.

True, it's understandable..... that l'il chickadee I care for that lives in *mumblemumble*a is going through a personal Hell right now. We share a bond that words cannot even beeeeGIN to make rhyme or reason out of. Well, maybe we can rhyme..... no, I'm sure we can. We've turned coming up with a simple haiku into a four hour war where all we spoke to each other in were dirty haikus.

I think mine were a little more than 'dirty.'

Yes, but I don't think we can post or explain those here without worrying a few. In fact our little internal dialogue is probably raising a few brows. *chuckle*

I mean, 2 out of three so far have been about people that have moved on. Strong average, but, well, I'm obsessing.

Are you? What you are is rambling, back on subject, man.

Right.

So..... *p-ching!whoosh klllllllll.....unkh* disconnect, look back at this. Am I greiving in third person?.

No.... I am sitting here staring at the screen blankly. Where was I.....

Ah! Yes! Why am I writing about death so much. Sure, grrrrrreat beginning..... first several entries, this guy's creative and expansive, oh yes indeedy *chuckles and shakes head*

But it's not all about death and dying. I've already stated that I know there is no end. C'mon guys, we're energy masses, if you get down to it. Matter. Blood, guts, lots of squishy things that better belong inside than on the outside cause that would look funny...... but energy. Toss in a little faith in something to garnish, and poof! We are souled creatures. Many of us show the world daily that yes, indeed, we have one, let me pour it out in my diary to prove it. Something that special simple cannot....... cease to exist..... after a specific amount of time.

As our favorite Cicilian would say..... INCONCEIVABLE!

So now what. Yes, self, that was........ well....... *tilts head around, looking back to make heeads or tails of that*

A nice nugget of information but that took us nowhere?

Basically.....

A few years back, in my *thinks* sophomore year of college? Somewhere around there *all encompassing gesture of hand type absent waving* I took a photography class. And for our first assignment we were to just take random photos of whatever we felt like, just so we could get the hang of everything. Where did I choose to go? The cemetary a few blocks from the school. I mean, I could take my time, learn how to use my camera..... and was in no danger of my subject getting up and walking away (oh man, but if that did happen......).

After wandering around aimlessly, reading graves (some from 1800's too, was cool), clicking and wasting film I finally came upon something that just.... struck me. There were two eucalyptus trees that had grown in such a way that their trunks - though spaced several feet apart - when you stood back seemed to be intertwined. Dancing, even. And to top this off, the bark of one had been stripped completely, while the other was still covered. Using black and white film, well, you get the idea of contrast. I lay down a bit away from these trees and pointed my camera at the sky. Two or three tries later, after figuring out how not to blind myself with the setting sun, I got the picture I wanted. Black and white, life and death, intertwined as the trees spread their arms to either catch or throw the sun from/into the sky.

I thought that was pretty appropriate

Since it was getting dark, I had to wander around some more and figure out where I left my car. I took the long route to stroll through parts I hadn't covered yet, when I founda bench that I just had to look at and smile for quite a while. This turned into the other picture I developed for class, it simply said

"Ted would have loved this"

It made my poor stressed out student heart happy to read that. Yes indeedy, he would've loved it. I got quite a kick out of it, myself. Those two pictures, however, were the best I ever took for that class. I have this thing with cemetaries..... no matter how big or small. Most people think they're all about death and decrepancy and decay..... gloomy and dispassionate and outright scarey.

I beg to differ.

Cemetaries are a celebration of life! They are how we show our continued love for those that have departed. We haven't thrown them into a ditch somewhere and left them to rot. We've spent extrordinary amounts of money for a casket - which is seen and admired for exactly how long before it's covered in sevearl feet of dirt? We buy a plot - or an urn. We buy a headstone, statue, crypt, sepulchre, mausoleum, whatever you desire and then - in the midst of our grief, mind you - rack our brains to come up with an appropriate snippet that those who walk by, some never even knowing our loved one, will read and react.

Just like with Ted. I have no idea who he was. But I do know he had a sense of humor. He may have been a kind man, offering his seat to someone on the bus no matter who they happened to be. He may have been one of those crotchety old farts who like to whistle at the pretty little senoritas with a fine back end that walked by his porch. I don't know. But what I do know, is his family loved him, and appreciated him.

Self affirmation time - eh'rybahdy wi'h me now! - I am not obsessed with death.

Am I obsessed with what my readers (be there any) think of me and this recurring subject matter? Not really...... preeeeeettty safe bet is more that I've got a new toy and am writing in it every chance I get *winks* And I have this problem with, well, not shutting up.

Back to Graveyards, Big Guy

*sheepish grin* I also digress like mad...... But enough with this, I have a house to clean.... which, no matter how much catroons of the 50's and so on promised us by the year 2000, is not going to clean itself...

And where are my flying cars..... I want my flying car.....