{"id":176,"date":"2013-01-05T16:31:40","date_gmt":"2013-01-05T21:31:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.kariandcrawford.com\/events\/wedding\/?p=176"},"modified":"2013-01-05T16:31:40","modified_gmt":"2013-01-05T21:31:40","slug":"a-day-pondering-death-at-the-oakland-cemetery","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.kariandcrawford.com\/events\/wedding\/2013\/01\/a-day-pondering-death-at-the-oakland-cemetery\/","title":{"rendered":"A Day Pondering Death at the Oakland Cemetery"},"content":{"rendered":"

The following is a piece I wrote for a class in my Master’s program. The class, while really inspiring and fun was called\u00a0Grief, Loss, and Dying. <\/em>\u00a0The assignment was as follows:<\/p>\n


\nFinding\/Creating Meaning Stories<\/b>:\u00a0\u00a0In this assignment, you should write a one-page story\/poem that shows how you cope (or attempt to cope) with the loss and disruption inherent in the human condition. How do you put it all together for yourself? You should spend several hours in an activity\/place\/space during the week that brings (you hope will bring) you a sense of meaning, hope, peace, inspiration\u2014something that is specific to you and helps you cope with the inevitable loss and disruption in the human condition. What you do is really up to you and I will ask your classmates to suspend judgment about what you choose (as will I). In class, you will turn in one typed page that describes your experience and reflections and be prepared to speak to the class briefly (5-10 minutes) about your experience<\/em>.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

The following is a rough transcription (without direct ownership) of dialogue that I submitted. \u00a0Wanna play a fun game? Try to decide who said what in the dialogue below. My own mother failed miserably at guessing correctly.<\/p>\n

A Day Pondering Death at the Oakland Cemetery<\/b><\/p>\n

Atlanta, GA<\/b><\/p>\n

Spring 2012<\/strong><\/p>\n

1M, 1F<\/b><\/p>\n

It\u2019s such a pretty day.<\/p>\n

I love to wander cemeteries, is that weird?<\/p>\n

If it\u2019s weird then I\u2019m weird.<\/p>\n

While wandering around death, it\u2019s nice you can hear life from the patio bar across the street.<\/p>\n

The bar is called Six Feet Under.<\/p>\n

Heh, appropriate.<\/p>\n

All the Confederate dead are buried here from the Battle of Atlanta.<\/p>\n

\u201cNever forget.\u201d\u00a0 Never forget what? That these soldiers died fighting for an abhorrent system of oppression?<\/p>\n

I gotta leave the South.<\/p>\n

I like mausoleums; they\u2019re my favorite.\u00a0 They\u2019re like little clubhouses for the dead.<\/p>\n

Willie was a quiet man, but he was the first person to fly into Atlanta in an airplane. He shit his pants trying to land. Little known fact.<\/p>\n

You come up with good stories. I like the voices you pick.<\/p>\n

The interesting thing is, my voices would offend the dead, I sound like the guys that would have fixed their cars.<\/p>\n

Guess who is buried there.<\/p>\n

Judging from the middle-aged ladies in Chico\u2019s clothing, I\u2019m going to go with Margaret Mitchell.<\/p>\n

You win.<\/p>\n

How come there aren\u2019t rocks on the Jewish graves? Oh wait there\u2019s one.<\/p>\n

I think it\u2019s interesting they\u2019re segregated by which Temple they attended.<\/p>\n

How come this section has such nice landscaping?<\/p>\n

Dead people with money.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Trip.<\/i>\u00a0<\/i><\/p>\n

Trip.<\/i><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

We both tripped over those bricks at the same time.<\/p>\n

You\u2019re special.<\/p>\n

You\u2019re special.<\/p>\n

He died exactly 90 years before I was born.<\/p>\n

Interesting that\u2019s the first date you found.<\/p>\n

Why the lamb on a Jewish grave?<\/p>\n

Because baby graves always get lambs, I don\u2019t think it\u2019s denominational.<\/p>\n

Huh.<\/p>\n

What?<\/p>\n

This is a new headstone.\u00a0 For a baby that lived one day, had no name, and died 80 years ago. What in the world is the story there?<\/p>\n

I would want a huge monument to myself in a field. Just as a joke. Something that looks like a huge sea cucumber.<\/p>\n

Sea cucumbers are gross.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s where the joke comes in.<\/p>\n

She died young; it just says \u201cWife\u201d and \u201cDaughter.\u201d Obviously, he\u2019s not buried with her; he\u2019s probably resting with his next wife. So who paid for this?<\/p>\n

Her parents.<\/p>\n

I think so too.<\/p>\n

The Confederates did a lot of stuff wrong, but this statue they did right.<\/p>\n

What a sad looking lion.<\/p>\n

His testicles are a bit disconcerting.<\/p>\n

Gross.<\/p>\n

I want to be scattered in the Gulf of Mexico, remember that please.<\/p>\n

Oh I don\u2019t want anything like this at all.<\/p>\n

They do tours here, I\u2019m sure he\u2019s a volunteer.<\/p>\n

Nah, he just shows up and recruits people by looking official and then makes shit up.<\/p>\n

Or that.<\/p>\n

That woman looks totally drunk over there.<\/p>\n

Well it\u2019s always a crapshoot when you decide to trip balls and then wander a cemetery.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m looking for a guy\u2019s name – they make better stories.<\/p>\n

Why is everyone named \u201cAnnie?\u201d There are like hundreds of Annie\u2019s in here.<\/p>\n

The dead will come out, tomorrow….<\/em><\/p>\n

Really?<\/p>\n

None of them can really make a sound – in the ground…<\/em><\/p>\n

Very nice.<\/p>\n

Oh, please get a picture of me next to this \u201cRedwine\u201d tombstone.\u00a0 This is hilarious.<\/p>\n

Wait, I really want to find this one, and I know it\u2019s on this side. There it is.<\/p>\n

What is that?<\/p>\n

Yeah. This one always catches me off guard.<\/p>\n

Is that a cd engraved on the headstone?<\/p>\n

Yeah. I\u2019m going to google him.<\/p>\n

Who was he?<\/p>\n

Famous for his headstone I guess.<\/p>\n

He was young.<\/p>\n

A lot of bad cocaine in the 90\u2019s.<\/p>\n

Is that a magnolia?<\/p>\n

Yes.<\/p>\n

That is the biggest magnolia tree I\u2019ve ever seen.<\/p>\n

You know I just don\u2019t think I could ever drink out of a water fountain in a cemetery.<\/p>\n

Embalming fluid.<\/p>\n

If we act like we believe in the afterlife, why do we bother with all this grandeur for death?<\/p>\n

That\u2019s the question now isn\u2019t it?<\/p>\n

I don\u2019t want to be the kind of person that says it too much, but sometimes it\u2019s really hard not to say, \u201cI love you,\u201d when you say awesome things.<\/p>\n

I love you too.<\/p>\n

fin<\/em><\/p>\n

(I got an A).<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The following is a piece I wrote for a class in my Master’s program. The class, while really inspiring and fun was called\u00a0Grief, Loss, and Dying. \u00a0The assignment was as follows: Finding\/Creating Meaning Stories:\u00a0\u00a0In this assignment, you should write a one-page story\/poem that shows how you cope (or attempt to cope) with the loss and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":177,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-176","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-her"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.kariandcrawford.com\/events\/wedding\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/176","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.kariandcrawford.com\/events\/wedding\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.kariandcrawford.com\/events\/wedding\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.kariandcrawford.com\/events\/wedding\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.kariandcrawford.com\/events\/wedding\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=176"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/www.kariandcrawford.com\/events\/wedding\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/176\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":179,"href":"http:\/\/www.kariandcrawford.com\/events\/wedding\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/176\/revisions\/179"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.kariandcrawford.com\/events\/wedding\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/177"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.kariandcrawford.com\/events\/wedding\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=176"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.kariandcrawford.com\/events\/wedding\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=176"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.kariandcrawford.com\/events\/wedding\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=176"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}