Different
Many people use the phrase, "different as night and day," as an appropriate simile when comparing dissimilar things. I, on the other hand, do not regard this statement to be as true as we all think it. Night and day are different, but not nearly as different as some other things in life. If one were to think of it like I do, night and day could never be different, because no matter where you are and what time of day it is, being night or day, it is always the opposite somewhere else in the world. So, in the course of twenty-four hours, night and day never change. But the comparison is still there to make, and it is a much easier one to reference than the one I am about to bring up.
Burying the dead is something that we've all had to do. It is an unavoidable part of life that crushes your spirit, tests your strength, and urges you to change your own life in one way or another. It brings reality to your attention at shock value. To me, there is nothing more real in life than seeing the dead body of someone you may or may not have loved. Death is the culmination of existence and is something that everybody witnesses in life, before actually going through it oneself. To me there is no greater comparison than the one that can be said about life and death. The comparison of a room full of people, congregating in front of a deceased loved one, perhaps filled with warmth, compassion, tenderness, sadness, hate, anger, depression, some kind of emotion that gives them life and the body in front of which they are assembled which remains cold, motionless, still, and lifeless is a comparison that is inequivalent to any other.
The dead never quite look like what you expect them, and they never measure up to how beautiful they looked in life. There is no greater difference than the difference between life and death. The comparison of night and day does not compare to that of life and death. It is such that makes life so precious, and death so painstakingly real. But it is also that which gives some kind of assurance and comfort that even though we may not all be able to be united in life, we will all some day be united in death.
Burying the dead is something that we've all had to do. It is an unavoidable part of life that crushes your spirit, tests your strength, and urges you to change your own life in one way or another. It brings reality to your attention at shock value. To me, there is nothing more real in life than seeing the dead body of someone you may or may not have loved. Death is the culmination of existence and is something that everybody witnesses in life, before actually going through it oneself. To me there is no greater comparison than the one that can be said about life and death. The comparison of a room full of people, congregating in front of a deceased loved one, perhaps filled with warmth, compassion, tenderness, sadness, hate, anger, depression, some kind of emotion that gives them life and the body in front of which they are assembled which remains cold, motionless, still, and lifeless is a comparison that is inequivalent to any other.
The dead never quite look like what you expect them, and they never measure up to how beautiful they looked in life. There is no greater difference than the difference between life and death. The comparison of night and day does not compare to that of life and death. It is such that makes life so precious, and death so painstakingly real. But it is also that which gives some kind of assurance and comfort that even though we may not all be able to be united in life, we will all some day be united in death.
posted by Leland J. Fischer at 2:29 AM
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