Funerals

I never know how to behave at funerals. It's quite an odd custom really, do you go there to be sad, or do you go there to remember the good times and be happy? And when people want you to be remembering the good times, why do you always feel so miserable? It's interesting, that funerals are entirely for the benefit of the living, rather than the dead. Dead people don't care if you are playing photos of them or their favorite music. People do these things so they, as living people, can preserve memories. I'm not saying I disagree with it, I just think it is interesting.

At the funeral I was at the other day, there was a eulogy given that I thought was absolutely brilliant. It went something along the lines of "I wanted to share with you one of Dad's most prized possessions, his lawn. At a young age, we were given responsibilities, taking out the grass clippings, sitting on dads shoulders watching and learning as he mowed his beloved lawn. When we were older, us boys became apprentices, starting first with the hand held, then later, graduating to whipper snipper and then finally, the ride on. With great lawns, come great responsibility..." I felt like for the first time, it was okay to laugh at a funeral. Everyone else was doing it. I came away not feeling upset per se, but feeling like I had honored a memory, honored the life a of a really great person.