Sweet Auburn: The Magazine of the Friends of Mount Auburn Inspiring All Who Visit | Page 8

Humanity
Complicates
Death
Stella Varnum, Grade 10

Humanity complicates death. Scientifically,
death is simple.You are here, and then you are not. Death is
not beautiful, nor is it sad. It is just part of being alive. But
humanity fears death. It is inevitable, inescapable, and in
death, there is true equality. We lie to ourselves. We create
beautiful places to be buried, erect stones “to last centuries,”
and spread ashes to free the soul. We humans go through
these motions, these patterns, these rituals to find closure in
death. Still, at the end of it all, death is what scientists proclaim it to be; a state of non-being. The monuments erode,
the beautiful gardens decompose, and eventually every
single person in every single grave around the globe will
be forgotten. I look at a cemetery and see a sad, fruitless
last effort for humans to control their fate and somehow
influence their afterlife. However, a cemetery isn’t a place
for dead people. It is a place for the living. This is why I
appreciate Mount Auburn Cem