Contemplating Life and Death 1/3

It is something quite remarkable to enter the hall of the dead and to ponder about lives that have lived and stories that have unfolded in another part of time. Ephemeral is probably a good word to describe the blink of an eye that is human life.

We are born, we live and we die.

It's not a very big surprise that people want to have something that prolongs this tiny frame of time in which they have experienced life. A tomb stone or grave stone must be a human constant throughout civilization. We say: "I was here", "You should not forget me".

It is an arm stretched out throughout time and to grab the observer and experiencer of the distant future. We use stones to do this because they are one of the most enduring objects that we have and have always been quite accessible. Yet stone withers with the passing of time. Stone, grabbed by the teeth of time, does not linger forever; cannot endure the unendurable, incomprehensible vastness of time.

Tomb stones are therefore also a reminder that we are not immortal. Not only do they speak with the voice of the deceased, but they are also saying: "You will not live forever", "You will one day die".

Part 2