ziadel

This is a tough one with no real answer.


I will make this point tho.

Père Lachaise Cemetery has all these people interred there:

Nadar (Gaspard-Félix Tournachon) , a French photographer, caricaturist, journalist, novelist and balloonist.
Gérard de Nerval — French poet.
Michel Ney — marshal of the French army who fought in the French Revolutionary War and the Napoleonic Wars.
Louis Nicolas Davout — Napoleon's undefeated "Iron Marshal."
Victor Noir — journalist killed by Pierre Napoleon Bonaparte in a dispute over a duel with Paschal Grousset. The tomb, designed by Jules Dalou is notable for the realistic portrayal of the dead Noir, and for the fact that he appears to be at least partially sexually aroused, his large penis pushing his part-unbuttoned fly open. In consequence, Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte, and father of neoimpressionism.
Simone Signoret — Academy-award winning French actress.
William Sidney Smith, British admiral of whom Napoleon Bonaparte said, "That man made me miss my destiny".
Gerda Taro — (real name Gerda Pohorylles; 1911 - Spain 1937) was a German war photographer the great love of Robert Capa, also one of the iconographers of the Spanish Civil War. Tomb monument by Alberto Giacometti.
Isaac Titsingh — Dutch surgeon, scholar, VOC trader, ambassador to Qing China and Tokugawa Japan
Alice B. Toklas — American author, partner of Gertrude Stein, Toklas's name and information is etched on the other side of Stein's gravestone in the same sparse style and font. As they were inseparable in life, so too are they in death.
Louis Verneuil — French playwright.
Marie, Countess Walewski — Napoleon's mistress, credited for persuading Napoleon to take important pro-Polish decisions during the Napoleonic Wars. Only her heart is entombed here; her other remains were returned to her native Poland.
Eduard Wiiralt — Estonian artist
Oscar Wilde — Irish novelist, poet and playwright. By tradition, Wilde's admirers kiss the art-deco monument while wearing lipstick.
Richard Wright — African-American author, wrote Native Son and other American classics.
Dominique Vivant, Baron de Denon — French artist, writer, diplomat and archaeologist. Located close to Frederick Chopin's grave.
Nestor Makhno — an anarcho-communist Ukrainian revolutionary
Leo VI Lusignian- last king of Cilician Armenia.
Karel Appel — Dutch painter.


Heres my second point, every cemetary has someone interred there who is as important to someone as the people interred at Père Lachaise are to a lot of people.
I agree with Ustwo tho, cemetaries are a great symbol of the evanescence of life, sometimes I find that frightening, sometimes I find that comforting. When I need to be frightened its nice to walk through and realize that a lot of the crap I am pining away for will ultimately just be left behind. But when I need to be comforted its nice to walk through and look at the headstones, wonder who the people were, wonder how they lived their lives and smile because someone cared about them enough that the though of not being able to go there and visit with them was just unbearable. So they went through the trouble of creating a special place where there is a connection between the living and the dearly departed. Sometimes when I get depressed thats enough right there to lift me out of it.

So if we could find out a way to tax the dead it would be ok then? *snicker*

Interesting food for thought, but theres no real answer I'm afraid. All anyone can do is judge by their own yardstick.

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