LIFE
Graveyards Taught Me So Much About Life
Walking through them can change who you are
My wife thinks I spend too much time in graveyards. She’s probably right, although she’s been known to take me to one occasionally. The most recent was in Virginia City, Nevada, where Mark Twain started his career as a journalist and a writer. He’s not buried there, but that doesn’t diminish the uniqueness of the place.
Virginia City was a gold town at one point and now makes its living through the tourists who pour in to see a bit of history since many of the original buildings and drinking establishments are unchanged.
The cemetery has gravestones and markers that are so old you can no longer determine what they say. There are wooden boards and simple crosses. As I walked through, I saw that most of the town’s residents didn’t live long. Forty years was typically the oldest. I constantly had goosebumps while I was there because my visit was on my 40th birthday.
It’s hard to walk through a cemetery without coming away with stories. You can let your imagination run wild thinking about how life must have been back then. And it’s not just this cemetery. There is so much you can learn from any of them. I’m not talking about just the graves but the people who visit them.
