Day of the Dead

Today I went to visit the grave of Tiffany Campbell, the girl for whom I wrote a poem previously.  I go there every now and then, the same way I do for the other friends I have known personally to pass away.  The same goes for pets.

I am struck by what seems an issue to not even worry about, yet I do.  I have lost about two personal friends in my youth and some pets...that is it.  Here and now, in early 2012, I have lost no immediate or extended family, meaning all of the family I have had from the point of my birth are still living.  This is a blessing, but it makes me apprehensive as to how much I may have taken them all for granted.  Plainly put, I am curious as to how I will take it when they do pass on.

Death is as inevitable as the sunrise for us all, but the truth is that very few of us realize this.  It is both Freudian and biblical concepts that we, especially when we are young, tend to view ourselves as immortal.  It seems it is only when we have come close to death or are facing it directly do we attemt to reconcile it somewhat.  For me, everytime I see or hear about it happening to a young person (car wrecks, suicides), I am struck at how a person was just bursting forth in the springtime of their life and they are suddenly in the ground, returning to the soil.  It becomes such a moving thing for me the closer I draw to it myself, which is occurring as I write.

Just today, as I prepared to walk away from Tiffany's grave, I noticed a familiar name on the nearest tombstone.  It read: Dennis Thompson (1980-2011).  He had been thirty according to the dates...my age.  According to a laminated obituary still hanging from his vase it was, in fact, the same young man I recollected.  He was ahead of me in high school by two grades and I was not even aware he was deceased.  It appears that death is far more present than I previously imagined and that destiny, herself, has even taken a fancy at toying with me through random gravesightings.

All I know now is that life seems so much shorter and more frail this evening.  Moving forward is the only true instinct we have besides bargaining with our Creator for extensions, whether we do the latter out loud or not.

It is a real shame when the scriptures declare: "the dead know nothing."  God only knows what a tale they might have...certainly more worthy than these blogs.