Comments on: Pondering My Faith In The Rain

By: Andrew Muir

Andrew Muir — Tue, 16 Mar 2010 21:10:50 +0000

Sorry, I meant my request would be ignored someone else would put on an epitaph less polite .

That’s a good one, eruke

By: eruke

eruke — Sat, 13 Mar 2010 20:15:45 +0000

Yes, Spike Milligan’s is a howler, and can never be used again. “How does it feel?”– this one seems too creepy, even for me. “What was it you wanted?” is a natural…. so is “OK, I’ve had enough,” but gazing upon that line in a graveyard is a little too much mortality for weak spirits like myself.

By: eruke

eruke — Sat, 13 Mar 2010 19:52:22 +0000

A good one, I didn’t think of that. And polite to whom? Your ex-self? Your mourners? Casual visitors? “I can’t stop here, I ain’t ready to unload.” I like that one most now.

By: Andrew Muir

Andrew Muir — Sun, 07 Mar 2010 18:42:58 +0000

I’d be extremely proud if someone thought I was worthy of the epitaph: “He sure was funny and he sure told the truth.” Alas I suspect it’ll end up being something less pithy and a lot less polite.

Still, as I will be past the point where the “willow don’t bend” and it won’t matter one way or the other.

By: John Gibbens

John Gibbens — Wed, 03 Mar 2010 15:41:29 +0000

A nice circle of Dylan and the dead: Coyote is the Trickster, I believe, of American Indian mythology, analagous to Hermes, who guides the souls of the dead to the underworld, who is analagous to Anubis, who did the same for the Egyptians, and has the head of a jackal…
I’d like to nominate, from Lone Pilgrim (not actually an epitaph in the song, but a voice from beyond the grave): “How sweetly I sleep here alone.”
For conveying the most about the departed in the fewest words, I’d nominate Spike Milligan’s actual epitaph: “I told you I was ill.”
Other Dylan lines that would make for arresting headstones: “A man with no alibi”
“How does it feel?”
“Blowin’ in the wind”
“What was it you wanted?”
“Meet me in the morning”
“OK, I’ve had enough”

By: John Hinchey

John Hinchey — Fri, 26 Feb 2010 02:22:07 +0000

Nina:

Your image of Michigan seems to be based on the Upper Peninsula (known here as the UP). That’s where the Maine-like abundance of pine trees are, and the eagles, too. We have some owls down south, though mostly in the rural areas. What the urbanized southern Michigan area have (besides squirrels, raccoons, skunks, et al) is deer, hawks, and the occasional coyote–though I recently read that coyotes are beginning to infest even the Columbia campus. If we’re lucky, soon we’ll even have coyotes in Congress!

By: Robert Reginio

Robert Reginio — Thu, 25 Feb 2010 21:50:07 +0000

A lost friend of mine has carved on his tombstone two lines from the refrain of “Lay Down Your Weary Tune:”
Lay down your weary tune, lay down,
And rest yourself ’neath the strength of strings.

I’d choose, for the wonderful effect when placed in the epitaphical context:

“Well, my parents they warned me not to waste my years
And I still got their advice oozing out of my ears.”

By: eruke

eruke — Thu, 25 Feb 2010 01:59:21 +0000

Wouldn’t it be wonderful if This American Life had a permanent La Vita Bob Dylan segment? We could demonstrate that no aspect of human life is not manifested in a Bob Dylan song. And there is barely a square yard in the US that doesn’t have some kind of Dylan-print upon it.
But in Michigan you have all those pine trees and eagles and owls.

See that my grave is kept clean–this line always makes me wonder why it matters to have one’s grave kept clean. It’s a sign that the person is being remembered?

By: 1ifbyrain2ifbytrain

1ifbyrain2ifbytrain — Wed, 24 Feb 2010 17:13:25 +0000

“See that my grave is kept clean”

By: John Hinchey

John Hinchey — Wed, 24 Feb 2010 03:04:54 +0000

Charming! Have you ever thought about becoming a stand-up comic? Or getting a regular gig on This American Life? You sound here like a stowaway on the Pequod who would have given Ishmael a run for his money.

And as an expat East Coaster, I can tell you: it’s worse here in Michigan, where even the Spring is not especially sunny.