Turning Cemetaries Into Parks

A FRIEND OF MINE once remarked that he wished society would "pull up the rocks" as he put it, and turn cemetaries into parks. My own mother (1920-2014), since cremated and buried in an urn between her parents ( father 1891-1943, mother 1892-1971), all of whom I knew well and remember lovingly, once remarked that "we are running out of land". This is a questionable assertion, since even seven billion of us still seem to have, per capita, plenty of room, but its sound in theory, since human population and economic development are still increasing, and since land is limited, and not increasing. Actually, land area is decreasing, and will decrease a great deal more, what with climate change and the rising of the sea level. It turns out that we can have our cake and eat it too. We can bury our dead and - frolic about merrily on the ground right above them. In point of fact this is once exactly what occurred all over America, before the Civil War. Back then, cemetaries were places of love and happiness, since most people died of natural causes, whether at an old or young age. Most folks went peacefully, in their own homes, surrounded by loved ones, and were buried lovingly, near home, and were visited often, and the dead and the living shared the land. Indeed, cemetaries were parks of a sort, in pre Civil War America. There were picnic tables, and picnics. People took walks through them, and thought nothing of it, other than good thoughts. Fears of hauntings were few and far between, and not seen as anything to worry about. If one encounters one's beloved deceased in spirit, all the better! Then came the American Civil war, and hundreds of thousands of youngsters, violently murdered by - by us all. Suddenly cemetaries lost their luster, and took on a far mosre sinister aspect. They were filled with people who shouldn't be there. A sense of grief permeated the land, and the places where dead are buried in large numbers. And to this day this has never changed. World Wars One and Two only served to exacerbate the change in spirit, and really, isn't a a shame? A shame that these three hideous wars had to spoil everything, including cemetaries.