Little known tidbit (at least to me)
I learned something new about the Muslim culture tonight…I remarked to Gokce on the teleferik (gondola) ride up to Eyup, a small mountain overlooking the Golden Horn, about how nice the planted flowers looked on all the gravestones. Then it hit me. I asked why the graves looked more like flower boxes with headstones than graves with headstones. While we pop people in fancy, overpriced wooden and metal boxes varying between $1,000 and $5,000, secured inside a cement box in an attempt to prolong the dead from becoming worm food, Muslims have the right idea. They cut to the chase by wrapping their dead in a sheet and burying them inside a cement box with no lid. Frankly, if I wanted to be buried instead of burned to grey ash and boney bits, that’s the way I’d like to go…at least at these cemeteries, the plants are allowed to stay. I’ll stick to my cremation ending though because I’d rather have my grey bits corked in a test tube, taken by anyone who travels to a place I’ve never been and spread my ashes there. That way I can truly say I’ve left a mark on every country I’ve been to…albeit this time a grey spatter pattern.
Tags: Croatia, England, Istanbul, Muslim, Turkey, Tag Index
cristi.farrell