You Have Reached Your Destination

Not my words. My GPS announced this when we arrived at the cemetery.

I wondered if the mourners in the hearse just ahead of us heard the same announcement.

The funerals I’ve attended tend to be set on unseasonably warm, confection clouded days, and this was no exception. The February chill crept into our light coats, but the sunlight warmed us, nonetheless.

I knew the deceased for about 25 years. Not well, but well enough to feel that being at the cemetery was appropriate. It fell somewhere between Nick and Owl Eyes at Gatsby’s funeral.

Oh, spoiler alert. Sorry for that.

Yeah, so the Dead Gatsby had no one at his funeral, which is the point there, as the Great Gatsby had everyone at his parties, and you can now skip the chapter which goes into a lot of syntatic detail about that.

This funeral was for another Jay, which was the actual name of this deceased, and was attended by many people who loved him.

The last time I’d been to a cemetery it was to visit my father’s grave. Before that, it was to bury him.

Being that there were/are too many feelings to process about a loss so deeply personal, it’s an easier subject for examination when there are degrees of separation, as with Jay.

The collective emotions of the attendees, all of whom arrived at this place at this time for this man, froze us in a resin that will live on in memory. That’s the better spin than we just watched a formerly alive person be planted in the ground, or we were third wheels on a date with destiny.

We may have different places typed into our GPS, but in the end, we share the same destination.

Have a nice day.