I suppose it's not every family that takes an impromptu field trip through a cemetery, but it's what we did on the way home from church on Sunday. As I've mentioned, Mama and the kids play
Ingress, the app game using local landmarks. And there was a nearby cemetery with several "portals" as part of the game.
It gave us a chance to talk about a few things, since death had come up a few times last week and since we don't visit cemeteries often (and rarely pay too much attention when we drive by, unless it's a really old one):
- respect for the dead (as we debated whether playing a game in a cemetery was respectful. We decided because we were just driving through peacefully that it was ok.);
- the history of cemeteries (at least the modern Western history, namely as parks, a la Bethnal Green in London and Green-wood in NYC, both of which I've visited);
- the function of cemeteries and especially gravemarkers (history, memorial, status, kinship, style);
- burial customs (different cultural traditions, like the need to bury those who are Jewish quickly, those who are Muslim without coffins, and Mama's Chinese ancestors as far up a mountain as possible) and cemetery visitations (on religious holidays, Dios de los Muertos, significant personal anniversaries, or not much at all--Gommie buys Easter lilies and poinsettias in memory of her mother, but not for her mother's grave. I like that.)
- the styles and traditions of headstones (how many Eastern Europeans have begun to put likeness on gravemarkers; how since Schindler's List the placement of rocks on headstones has grown in popularity regardless of faith);
- and even the business of cemeteries (the job of monument makers; the rules on headstones and floral offerings at some strict faith-based cemeteries; the cost of a plot; the maintenance of the space--even the amount of chemicals used to maintain that weedless forever-green look.)
We also discussed how Mama and I don't really want to be buried in cemeteries, instead being cremated (ashes sprinkled somewhere or not, up to our descendants.)
And all Bud could do was look out for Weeping Angels!!
