Marching Orders

A friend of mine reports that this morning, Memorial Day, 2007, he was paying respects at Mount Auburn Cemetery when out of a cluster of folks some ten feet away he heard, "...wonder how much those houses would be worth if this place wasn't here. I mean, who wants to be next to a bone yard?"

At first my friend found the comment in poor taste but then he realized that we all try to laugh at our fears. Perhaps the ultimate and final piece of Real Estate scares us so far into our wit's end, that we say the implausable. He watched as the cluster formed into a family cohort and marched off. He noticed the sad perplexed eyes of everyone in the group, the confusion of this place and this time. My friend did not go to read the headstone. He left that family's history to itself.

No real estate on this day for me, for today does not belong to me. The threatening skies may damper many cook-outs here in New England, and that is all right, for these hours belong not to the BAR-B-Q table either. This day belongs to others and I will give them my thoughts today. Tomorrow I will return to what I love to do, knowing that I can do what I love because of what THEY did for me.