Arlington

I enjoy visiting graveyards, as strange as that may be. On entering a graveyard I generally gain a sense of complete calm and contemplation. The silence and solemnity of cemeteries is a welcome counterpoint to the clamor and frenetic energy of everyday life. Reading the inscriptions and seeing what people or families chose as their last memorial intrigues me. In reading the headstones you try to reconstruct a person’s life and place them back in the world. What did they live through? How long did they live? Were they married? Did they have children? This questioning and wondering is remembering. Remembering someone you never met, constructing a fantasy of their life that you cannot prove. The use and meaning in this stems for me in the acknowledgement of death, of a final sleep. Despite whatever fantasy life you construct, each of the headstones you see reinforces the fact that our time on earth is finite. Death is inevitable and unarguable.

I went to Arlington Cemetery on Saturday and I must say I regret not having gone sooner. Arlington Cemetery struck me as none of the monuments or any of the other sites in DC have. I realize of course that the effect is intended and the layout of Arlington is extremely manipulative, as we discussed earlier this evening. Even knowing this though, I still felt the stirrings of patriotism and certainly much pride in America for honoring her military in this manner. The sheer size of Arlington overwhelmed me, as did the views of downtown DC in the distance. At the tomb of the unknown soldier, I saw a demonstration of the extreme gravity in which the tomb is guarded. Yes Arlington impresses its visitors with security, patriotism, and power. Also presented though were the values of dignity and respect in remembering the departed.