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Being one of those people who has always loved cemetaries (for various reasons), I was surprised the first time I saw a cemetary who did not allow any type of personal grave marker except for an engraved, thick, but flat, standard-sized, brassy-bronze, alloy plate with graphics/epitaphs, and the deceased's information. The only monuments that were allowed were very large, stone, religious and other monuments that defined which areas were Catholic, which were Protestant, and which were neither.

The only other above ground structures were bench-style seats situated throughout the gorgeous, slightly sloping hills, and a flower urn beside each grave marker that matched the plate.

No joke, I was so impressed the first time I drove by it, I stopped in and told one of the Director's assts. how impressed I was with the idea. He left for a minute and brought the Funeral Dir. back with him. In talking with him, I found that I was actually right about the basic idea behind the standardization and uniformity.

Aside from the obviousness of things like easier upkeep, maintenance and little risk of vandalism, with Death being "The Great Equalizer", no one was "better than" anyone else. Whether mega-rich, middle class, or poor, at the end of our lives here, all the fuss and fighting over who's who and what's what in the grander scheme of things is finally over. The paradox of our struggle for individuality was contained within our sameness all along.

Though I still enjoy walking through cemetaries (used to take the kids with me, too), especially the old ones, browsing all the names and dates, and nowadays, some with pictures of the deceased (it's like reading a 3D history book), this cemetary is still my favorite because it tells the greatest truth IMO; at the end of the day, we were all just...people.
 
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