Cemeteries are not places I would commonly think to hang out but more and more of them encourage people to use them to jog, bike, walk, learn, read, though I don’t think that I am up to even considering having a picnic there. Lakeview in Cleveland, a place I recommend you have a gander at, has programs on a regular basis in the summer. This brings to the attention the artwork that is there, (hopefully reminds us to pray for the dead) and helps keep vandalism down.Perhaps the most common stone monuments are that of urns. “Ashes to ashes, dust to dust,” goes the saying and one can imagine the ashes of life symbolically held in this great stone pieces. Quite often the urns are dramatically draped with a cloth. There is some debate about what exactly (if anything) this means which may point to it meant different things to different people. For some it was just more artistically daring. According to Douglas Keister in his article “The Story I
n Stone” from “American Cemetery” October 1999, “There are those with more romantic views who say the drape represents the collapse of the partition between life and death or that the drape represents the shroud that is left after the soul departs the body.” In another publication it was said that the addition of the cloth meant to signify that here was a life that was cut short.It is not over surprising that the definition of the drape is not “concrete” or “etched in stone.” (Sorry about that.) Symbols can morph and change. Perhaps early it meant something specific and then somebody saw it and said, “Cool, I want that!” and thus the meanings became
blurred.On Cleveland’s east side is another symbol that might shock visitors to the graveyard. Over the portico to the cemetery chapel there is a stone angel gravely staring down at everyone and clearly giving them the bird, back of the hand facing the people with the middle finger boldly sticking up. Back when the angle was carved however, this symbol did not mean what it means today. The finger, actually extended before the angle’s face is calling us to hush and be silent, for all should show reverence in the presence of death.
Well, if the real message did not get across, shock might achieve the same thing.
5 comments:
I gotta admit, I'd be a bit shocked at an angel giving me the bird! LOL!
I'd figure that angel was the work of vandals! Omg, how funny. We never know what we're going to find here.
I like graveyards. They are darned spooky when you're 9 or 10, but later, they are darned peaceful. And interesting, yes.
I've always liked reading the inscriptions on the headstones and wondering about the people and feeling sad when I saw someone who had died young.
reading the epitaphs, the born on date and the expiration date [like a beer bottle does today], and sometimes wondering about the individual's life ... of special interest are 'family plots' where it is obvious numerous members of the same lineage are interred. and as unknown as they become within a generation or so, so will we be. best be in the 'book of life' where we will never be forgotten.
-the definition of the drape is not “concrete” or “etched in stone.”-
Are these word games you're so good at natural abilities, or are they faculties that the bishop gives you in ordination? :)
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