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28 Feb 16 - 06:52 AM (#3775479) Subject: BS: Crematorium Metaphor From: GUEST,Shimrod Recently, I attended the funeral of an acquaintance. Before his mortal remains were cremated there was a short humanist ceremony in the chapel of the local crematorium. According to a couple of his friends, who addressed the mourners, he had led an adventurous, exuberant and action packed life the details of which made us all laugh and served to take the edge off the sadness of the occasion. I couldn't help noticing, though, an aspect of the chapel. It had obviously been built at the beginning of the 20th century - in an architectural style fashionable at that time (I'm sure that 'architecture buffs' could supply a name for the style). The interior was quite spacious - about the size of a large parish church and the walls were adorned with plaques - about 18 x 12 inches in size - commemorating deceased persons. Obviously, by the 1940s, or thereabouts, the walls of the chapel had been completely covered by these plaques. I couldn't help reflecting that these plaque covered walls represented a sort of metaphor for human existence. Whoever had come up with the idea of adorning the walls with the plaques had not thought things through very well and had failed to reflect on the blindingly obvious fact that chapel wall space was finite and would soon fill up. Isn't that how our species is currently running the world? We're currently assuming that space and resources are infinite and we can go on using them up at an exponential rate. And then, when it all goes 'pear-shaped', we'll be so surprised and start fighting each other over the pathetic scraps which remain. |
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28 Feb 16 - 07:12 AM (#3775483) Subject: RE: BS: Crematorium Metaphor From: gnu That's deep. |
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28 Feb 16 - 03:50 PM (#3775589) Subject: RE: BS: Crematorium Metaphor From: GUEST,Sol Don't worry about it - get buried at sea. |