There’s something about a cemetery that puts you in touch with the reality of life, namely, as Ken Burns, said in his commencement address at Brandeis, “You won’t get out of here alive.” Burns is a documentarian of our American history. Starting with his monumental series on the Civil War, a time that tore this Nation apart, he has gone on to provide deeper understandings of who we are in this land we call America.
Who we are is also reflected in our cemeteries. Yesterday morning the gravestone of Abel Morgan was almost black with age; by noon it had been restored to the point of being able to read the inscription: “In Memory of Abel Morgan, Pastor of the Baptist church in Middletown, who departed this life Nov. 24, 1785, in the 73d year of his age.”
The bottom one reads: “His life was blameless, his ministry was powerful; he was a burning and shining light, and his memory is dear to the saints.” How will we be remembered, not just as individuals, but as a society? We still have the opportunity to right our wrongs so that a similar inscription could be placed for us.
Prayer for the Day
Fleeting are our lives in the span of history O God,
But you but you have given us this time, this day;
Memories of those who have gone before inspire us,
As we consider the future we leave to our children.
Hold us, O Lord, so we strive to build your realm,
The one of peace, mercy, and justice for all.
In the name of the One who offers us strength
Even Christ Jesus our Lord, Amen.
Thoughts for the Day
He who rejects change is the architect of decay. The only human institution that rejects progress is the cemetery
Harold Wilson, late Prime Minister, UK (195-1996)
But sometimes I fear that the people of my country can unite only beside victims’ bodies, in coffins and cemeteries. Like tribesmen who dance round old totems, we ignore the living and can only appreciate the dead.
Olga Tokarczuk, Polish author, public intellectual and activist
Do not say, “Why were the former days better than these?”
For it is not from wisdom that you ask this.
Wisdom is as good as an inheritance, an advantage to those who see the sun.
Ecclesiastes 7: 10-11