For as long as I can remember, I have been fascinated with graveyards. Perspective. Mystery. Sadness. History.
For the residents, an argument or a small slight doesn’t matter anymore. Do they care if someone was rude to them? Where their children went to college? How much money they made?
Think about all the trials and tribulations the people in those graves went through. The worries, the challenges, the tragedies. Also think about the great times. The births, the parties and the wonderful accomplishments.
I believe the angst and worry never mattered. If they could do it all over, they would have done many things differently.
I also think about legacy. Do their descendants ever visit them? I love visiting the graves of my parents and my brother in my hometown of Gainesville, FL.
I live in Concord, MA which is the birthplace of American liberty. One of the many beautiful things about New England is the cemeteries that hold many stories that have unfortunately been lost to time. Weathered headstones from the 1600’s and 1700’s can be found in almost every small town throughout the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. If you have the opportunity, visit towns like Gloucester, Plymouth and Boston. My personal favorite is Sleepy Hollow Cemetery in Concord, MA which includes the burial sites of Henry David Thoreau, Ralph Waldo Emerson and Nathaniel Hawthorne. It is absolutely beautiful.
I often walk or bike through the cemeteries and marvel at the beauty but can’t help but feel a real sense of sadness. You see small headstones of babies and young children that didn’t make it out of adolescence. How heartbreaking.
The courage and curiosity for many of these early pioneers that settled America amaze me. Death was a constant companion and they must have had an incredible sense of grit and resiliency that sustained them through the tough times.
The graves inspire and ground me.
How about some more perspective. In 2020, 3.358 million Americans died which was about 1% of the population. Almost 60 million people die every year in the world with a population of 7.8B. 1 Does that line at the airport really matter?
As a father and business professional, I often need to remind myself to have some patience and focus on the big picture. You can’t solve every problem and ultimately, what really matters? For me, it’s legacy and impact.
Regardless of your belief in God and everlasting life, I encourage you to find a cemetery, enjoy the beauty and reflect on the lives lived.
CDC Provisional Mortality Data — United States, 2020 | MMWR (cdc.gov). WHO
