When You Are Young

My head is in a strange place this year.

Began it as the King of Positivity and Commitment.

Then my friend Nelson died in May. Unexpectedly, shockingly. A rude and eye-opening wake up call.

Yesterday I made the decision to undergo knee replacement surgery. Ultimately that is a good thing and I look forward to a positive result. But it also forces you to think about the slow deterioration of the body, which only leads to one thing.

I had time to kill after the medical appointment yesterday before reporting for the continual degradation of my soul (work). So I went to my favorite contemplation spot - the cemetery. And came across an unsettling scene.

A hearse slowly pulled in close to an open gravesite. I was about three "streets" over; I pulled up a bit to get a better view, but was in no way close or disrespectful. Interesting aside - I never hesitate to throw empty nips out the window of my car, but I never drop them on the grounds of the cemetery.

Cemetery workers were hovering in the background a discrete distance away. The funeral home employees slid the coffin out of the hearse and placed it on the metal frame that floats it above the grave. A preacher stepped up and began to pray, with only the funeral home employees in attendance and in prayer, which seeemed odd to me. Four people in total. There were five folding chairs set up with protective covers over them, but nobody else was there.

When they were done, the preacher left. One of the funeral home employees lifted the coverings off the chairs, folded them up and packed them up. They left.

The cemetery workers stepped up to do their thing. They picked up all the phony green stuff that's laid out around the gravesite and loaded it into their truck. They have a method of folding them up just like you would an American flag. It was odd to watch, given the circumstances. They lowered the coffin into the grave, then removed the metal frame, which closes up in a specific way. They loaded that into the truck.

It was all business as usual, which is severely at odds with the truth of someone's life coming to an end.

I was waiting for them to begin shovelling dirt over the coffin. I wanted to see it. For finality, I guess. But I ran out of time, much like the deceased. I had to leave for work.

It was such a lonely and desolate scene. No family, no friends. No empathy. No emotion. It is depressing enough to witness a burial, but even more so when the deceased is abandoned. Ignored, forgotten and alone.

It gave me one more thing to thing about, one more angle of perspective.

It is a lot easier to maintain a sunny disposition when you are young.