11
Death is the great democratizer. It razes all classes and hierarchies that are carefully cultivated throughout life. The rich and the poor; the beautiful and the homely; the powerful and the powerless--all of us are subject to the same fate. No exceptions. As Jim Morrison of The Doors eloquently proclaimed: None of us get out of here alive.

Most of us lament our lot in life. We wish we were taller or shorter, thinner or wealthier; healthier, more talented, more famous. All of us long to be "happy," all the while craving and wishing to have more or be more than we are. Our very craving is a major source of unhappiness, dis-ease.

Death levels out all differences, burns away all distinctions. At the end, I am simply a corpse, indistinguishable from every other. "His remains, her remains"--a phrase that is used to describe one and all. It is a rare expression of truth in a world where language is, more often than not, used to obscure truth.

cemetery walk
past small & large gravestones
a grassy knoll