Mickey Z
Cool Observer
Sunday, September 19, 2004
Pushing Up Daisies
Had to attend a funeral today...and it got me thinking.
Q. Why do they have to build walls around the cemetery?
A. Because people are dying to get in
I liked that joke a lot as a kid...but ended up spending lots of time in my local graveyard (Is every shift at the cemetery called the graveyard shift?) I dated an Irish girl...barely five-foot tall. She walked into the video store where I worked in very short black shorts. I got her number from the membership files and called (smooth).
Her dad earned his paycheck running things at my local graveyard. Eventually they were allowed to move the family into a house in the cemetery...rent free. Odd perk but you learn to accept perks without much question.
Their house was castle-like...large stones looming over the headstones. Lots of room inside (lots more outside). I’d meet my tiny Irish lass at my local graveyard. The guys would tease me about seeing my Chevy sedan parked outside the gates (people dying to get in, remember). I had to laugh along with them...odd situation but you learn to accept dating quirks as they come.
In an ironic twist, I’m philosophically opposed to graveyards. What a waste of land, time, money, and energy. Egotistical humans feel the need to fetishize the dead and pray to head stones and uproot entire ecosystems to take up valuable real estate in a morbid, futile attempt at immortality.
Be that as it may, one night, my tiny Irish lass listens to one of my schemes or rants and announces she has a theory: Each night she believes my body sleeps but my brain stays awake...thinking of new stuff. When my body wakes all that new stuff starts pouring out of my mouth until I fall asleep again the next night.
A funny thought to have...right outside my local graveyard.
Copyright © 2005-2007 Mickey Z.
