The Old Ways

I spent yesterday roaming around a historical cemetery with a dear friend. That silent city houses the remains of local politicians, industrialists, writers, suffragettes, soldiers, and lesser-known residents. Their monuments and mausoleums are astounding examples of funerary art across time, and we soon found ourselves surrounded by angels – both sculptural and spiritual.
 
During the Victorian period, families would spend entire days picnicking at cemeteries. Odd? Not really. During that time period, independent farms were squeezed out of the countryside. Unwilling to become tenant farmers, many workers fled to cities which were plunging into industrialization. Multi-generational families soon lived in crowded tenements rubbing elbows and, no doubt, driving each other crazy. There were no parks or playgrounds. But cemeteries offered pastoral surroundings with trim lawns, lush trees, joyful birds, and the heady scent of flowers beneath a clear sky. Children could run endlessly. Adults tidied graves, sharing sandwiches, ale, and lemonade while remembering those who came before them and hoping for a better life. The time spent with family, both living and dead, also allowed them to speak of the old ways.
 
“I love it when the old ways work,” the repairman, Toby Remeck, says in my novel The Sacred Stones and local baker, Addie Jesper, notes, “The old ways offer comfort that these modern times lack.” I agree with both of my characters. There is pleasure to be found in the old ways. That’s why we love old dogs who remind us that we both once ran as fast as the wind, we adore old school chums who call to mind the zany things we once attempted, and we favor old recipes that flood our kitchens with memories of family gatherings. Such comfort can be found in the familiar. Standing in that cemetery, I realized that there is also a profound human need to feel connected to the past; to be a part of the history of humankind – that river which flows forever.
 
Visit a quiet, old cemetery. Wander among those who dreamed long before us, and you’ll find that the past adds an enriching layer of meaning to our present lives.