WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:01.860 align:middle line:84% Here's a little poem about dying. 00:00:01.860 --> 00:00:05.610 align:middle line:84% It's called, "The Funeral of Great Aunt Mary." 00:00:05.610 --> 00:00:10.270 align:middle line:84% I had a great aunt who was buried 00:00:10.270 --> 00:00:12.640 align:middle line:84% one day from a little town nearby, 00:00:12.640 --> 00:00:15.580 align:middle line:90% and we all went over there. 00:00:15.580 --> 00:00:20.320 align:middle line:84% And I was struck by something in the funeral. 00:00:20.320 --> 00:00:25.360 align:middle line:84% As Antonio Machado, the great, great Spanish poet says, 00:00:25.360 --> 00:00:28.930 align:middle line:84% "there is no sound on Earth as serious 00:00:28.930 --> 00:00:35.010 align:middle line:84% as the sound of a piece of dirt hitting the casket." 00:00:35.010 --> 00:00:38.580 align:middle line:84% So I was struck by the seriousness of it. 00:00:38.580 --> 00:00:40.920 align:middle line:84% And then the contrast of that was 00:00:40.920 --> 00:00:43.950 align:middle line:84% the minister who was there who is a young man just out 00:00:43.950 --> 00:00:45.180 align:middle line:90% of the seminary. 00:00:45.180 --> 00:00:50.120 align:middle line:84% And he was saying all sorts of things that he didn't believe. 00:00:50.120 --> 00:00:52.680 align:middle line:84% That he didn't really understand. 00:00:52.680 --> 00:00:56.100 align:middle line:84% He wasn't old enough to understand what they did. 00:00:56.100 --> 00:00:59.530 align:middle line:84% And he said that we rejoice the death. 00:00:59.530 --> 00:01:01.720 align:middle line:90% And you know that isn't true. 00:01:01.720 --> 00:01:04.040 align:middle line:90% No one is going to do that. 00:01:04.040 --> 00:01:06.930 align:middle line:84% And when Christ said that, he meant something very different. 00:01:06.930 --> 00:01:12.380 align:middle line:84% He meant that if you spend your life struggling 00:01:12.380 --> 00:01:16.040 align:middle line:84% with your spirit, then you could possibly 00:01:16.040 --> 00:01:18.890 align:middle line:84% rejoice at death because at least you were to live. 00:01:18.890 --> 00:01:25.570 align:middle line:84% But you know, how many people do you know that are really alive? 00:01:25.570 --> 00:01:28.270 align:middle line:84% So those people cannot rejoice at death. 00:01:28.270 --> 00:01:30.210 align:middle line:84% And Christ says there are very few people that 00:01:30.210 --> 00:01:31.090 align:middle line:90% could rejoice at death. 00:01:31.090 --> 00:01:32.923 align:middle line:84% But the minister didn't understand all that, 00:01:32.923 --> 00:01:35.790 align:middle line:84% and he was saying that we all rejoice at death. 00:01:35.790 --> 00:01:38.580 align:middle line:84% Anyway, so this is a poem touching 00:01:38.580 --> 00:01:40.650 align:middle line:84% on what the minister said and the fact-- 00:01:40.650 --> 00:01:43.780 align:middle line:84% the sense that we had in his voice that no one believed it. 00:01:43.780 --> 00:01:47.370 align:middle line:84% So we had the strange contrast of something terribly real 00:01:47.370 --> 00:01:51.620 align:middle line:84% combined with something that wasn't really real at all. 00:01:51.620 --> 00:01:54.300 align:middle line:84% And in the end of the poem, there's a mention of the body 00:01:54.300 --> 00:01:57.180 align:middle line:84% not being allowed to be put in the grave. 00:01:57.180 --> 00:01:59.550 align:middle line:84% In Minnesota, in America more and more 00:01:59.550 --> 00:02:01.080 align:middle line:84% we're afraid of feeling anything. 00:02:01.080 --> 00:02:02.760 align:middle line:90% We're afraid of emotion. 00:02:02.760 --> 00:02:04.980 align:middle line:84% So one of the ways they get around it in the Midwest 00:02:04.980 --> 00:02:07.590 align:middle line:84% is that they do not lower the body into the grave 00:02:07.590 --> 00:02:11.510 align:middle line:90% anymore during the ceremony. 00:02:11.510 --> 00:02:13.460 align:middle line:84% They're afraid you might feel something 00:02:13.460 --> 00:02:17.030 align:middle line:84% if you saw that body go right down into the ground. 00:02:17.030 --> 00:02:19.500 align:middle line:84% You might see that clod of dirt hit it. 00:02:19.500 --> 00:02:20.450 align:middle line:90% So what do they do? 00:02:20.450 --> 00:02:23.360 align:middle line:84% They leave it up there with artificial grass around it 00:02:23.360 --> 00:02:24.800 align:middle line:90% on some sort of machine. 00:02:24.800 --> 00:02:27.140 align:middle line:84% And about dusk or so, some undertaker 00:02:27.140 --> 00:02:29.980 align:middle line:84% sneaks out there when no one's looking and lowers it 00:02:29.980 --> 00:02:33.780 align:middle line:90% into the ground. 00:02:33.780 --> 00:02:37.800 align:middle line:84% Anyway, so this is a poem called, 00:02:37.800 --> 00:02:40.140 align:middle line:84% "At the Funeral of Great Aunt Mary." 00:02:40.140 --> 00:02:45.020 align:middle line:84% "Here we are, all dressed up to honor death. 00:02:45.020 --> 00:02:47.930 align:middle line:90% No, it is not that. 00:02:47.930 --> 00:02:54.120 align:middle line:84% It is to honor this old woman born in Bellingham. 00:02:54.120 --> 00:02:57.510 align:middle line:84% The church windows are open to the green trees. 00:02:57.510 --> 00:03:04.020 align:middle line:84% The minister tells us that being the sons and daughters of God, 00:03:04.020 --> 00:03:09.090 align:middle line:84% we rejoice at death, for we go to the mansions prepared 00:03:09.090 --> 00:03:12.540 align:middle line:84% from the foundations of the world. 00:03:12.540 --> 00:03:14.850 align:middle line:90% Impossible. 00:03:14.850 --> 00:03:18.880 align:middle line:90% No one believes it. 00:03:18.880 --> 00:03:25.670 align:middle line:84% Out under bare pioneer field, the frail body 00:03:25.670 --> 00:03:30.170 align:middle line:84% must wait till dusk to be lowered 00:03:30.170 --> 00:03:33.500 align:middle line:90% in the hot and sandy Earth." 00:03:33.500 --> 00:03:34.000 align:middle line:90%