My grave

A few miles from where I grew up there's a large chemical plant near a cemetery. I always thought it'd be a great place to start a zombie movie. I wanted to get some photos to try to convince my amature film maker friends to shoot a scene there. But when I went to get pictures there weren't and good shots. The trees had grown to block the view of the chemical plant from the old part of the cemetery. You could only see the chemical plant from the newer parts. That's no good because all the good headstones and monuments are in the old part. People don't put those up anymore. They put up these short, lame, cheap-ass, grave markers.


The best two pictures of that cemetary.

I understand why. The deceased are deceased. They're beyond caring what grave marker they have or how nice the coffin is. The rest of the world doesn't care what kind of coffin the deceased has. Nobody except the people who have to move the body when the cemetery is being converted to condos. Even then they just want something that's still strong enough to lift without falling apart. This really has nothing to do with my original point does it? Hmm, no. Not so much.

The point is that we owe it, not to the dead but to future generations, to buy nice grave stones. We need to make our cemeteries into graveyards. What's the difference? Mood mostly.
Cemeteries are modern, clean, and full of little blocks of cement nearly flush with the ground. It's a place to go put flowers and maybe feel sad if you really feel like it. It could be mistaken for a golf course. It's mere body storage.
Graveyards are places where the dead live. Carved blocks of rock and weather stained statues sticking out of the ground at various heights. It's jagged, it feels old, it's unsettling. Here the dead demand to be remembered.

I'm going to be cremated. Stuff me in a cardboard box, turn up the gas, and let me burn. Take the remains and mix them in with cement. Add water. Stir. Pour the concrete mix into a mold. Maybe a cast of my body. Maybe a cast of some statue I'll make at a later date. Maybe a tower with a spot to put candles to creep people out a night. Put that monument out in the cemetery to add some character. Plus, when it comes time to build condos I'm easy to move.