Ethel...

Why do we have cemeteries? Why do we keep a stone and a casket full of bones in a field? It strikes me as a little contradictory. We-as in our culture- always talk about closure and moving on with our lives after loved ones die. And yet, we insist on keeping these memorials around, visiting them religiously and decorating them. It seems deductive to closure. And why do we decorate the graves? It's just stone afterall. We spend all this money getting the best, biggest and prettiest stone for someone who's never going to be able to appreciate it.
The whole thing is just another display of wealth and faux sympathy. We want to appear like we really cared for this person, but really we just want to show the other families that we cared more than they did because our stone is bigger. But you never see those people at the deceased's grave.
I found it ironic that the person who visited the grave across the street always went to this particular small, groddy, worn stone. I find myself hoping that the man wasn't apologizing for not being able to get "Ethel stonetoworntotell 1928-1989" a better, more flashy stone. Ethel knows you care, old man. Not because you were able to get a giant piece of granite, but because you still visit, after all these years.
Although, it depresses me that old man will never get closure because you're still there, bones in a time-capsule, name on a stone.