We Don't Know Who We Will Be Buried Next To

My father's headstone. He's buried next to a Ridley

When I created The Critical Thinker, the intent was for the reader to critically think and reflect upon each post.

It is not my intent for the reader to agree with me the writer; however, it is for him or her to think about an issue that he or she may or may not have thought about before. This post is written to do just that.

Often when we read, talk or think about death, we immediately think in terms of it being morbid or something we don't want to read, think, or talk about. But the truth of the matter is, death is the great equalizer. The two main equalizers are the fact that we were all born and the fact that we are all going to die. Many say death and "taxes," but as we have seen, folks know how to get around taxes. No one, however, will get around death.

As we all know racism, classism, and prejudice are very prevalent in life, yet in death, it will have no meaning whatsoever. In fact, all the toys, titles and material items will mean nothing either. In life we can obtain titles such as “Doctor,” “President,” “CEO,” etc. etc. that really won’t mean a thing once the hearse transports us to the cemetery.

I had been toying with writing this post for a little while and confirmation for me to write it came when I attended the funeral services of a close friend. While I was at the cemetery for the interment, I looked around at the various names on the headstones or grave markers surrounding my friend's burial plot and it came to me once again that we have no idea who we are going to be next to in our final resting place. It doesn't matter if the interment is in the ground or ashes being placed in a mausoleum, we really don't know who we are going to be lying next to. This is why the racism and prejudice thing in life doesn't make a lot of sense to me because the same prejudice or racist person, in the end, can be buried next to the very skin color or gender that he or she was prejudiced or was a racist against in life.

African Americans are buried next to Caucasians. Christians are buried next to Muslims. Jews are buried next to Gentiles. Men are buried next to women. The elderly are buried next to the young. Heterosexuals are buried next to the homosexuals, etc. etc.  My point is, in the end, we are all human beings and will come to that juncture in life where it [life] ends. Now I know, some of you are thinking that people purchase family plots and private plots and do know where and who they will be next to. That’s true to a degree, however, unless you are buried in the woods with no one else around you there are going to be others placed in your proximity.

If you'd like to test my theory, visit a cemetery and just walk around and read the various names on the headstones placed alongside each other. I believe you will find it interesting and probably something you've never thought about. Once you've tried this little experiment, I'm sure you'll agree that racism and prejudice seem extremely silly. So, one day when I had absolutely nothing else to do, I compiled a list from A-Z of who could possibly be buried next to each other. The list goes as follows:

the alcoholic can be buried next to the astronaut

the Bishop can be buried next to the barmaid

the crook can be buried next to the cop

the drug dealer can be buried next to the deacon

the engineer can be buried next to the embezzler

the financial analysts can't be buried next to the flimflammer

the gang banger can be buried next to the gardener

the hooker can be buried next to the hairstylist

the insurance broker can be buried next to the identity thief

the jailer can be buried next to the junkie

the keyboardists can be buried next to the kidnapper

the librarian can be buried next to the lion tamer

the makeup artists can be buried next to the murder

the nurse can be buried next to the nutritionist

the optometrists can be buried next to the obstetrician

the pastor can be buried next to the pimp

the Queen can be buried next to the quality control technician

the receptionists can be buried next to the robber

the sales rep can be buried next to the shoplifter

the teacher can be buried next to the terrorist

the usher can be buried next to the urologists

the veterinarian can be buried next to the violinist

the waiter can be buried next to the welder

the xylophone this can be buried next to the xenophobe

the yoga teacher can be buried next to the yard worker

the zookeeper can be buried next to the zipper machine operator

By now I think you get my point. While we are alive, we really need to abide by the Golden rule of doing unto others as you would have it done unto you. Treat everyone the way you would like to be treated. Let us do away with this age-old nonsense of racism and hatred because at the end of the day you never know who you will be lying next to in your final resting place. Something to critically think about.

You can hear me live each Saturday from 6-9 a.m. EDST as I host The Reading Circle with Marc Medley on FM radio in northern NJ WP88.7 FM. The show is web streamed around the world on gobrave.org, the TuneIn Radio Network, and RadioFX. I invite you to visit my website marcamedley.com as it is the gateway to all my media projects and services.