How long is eternity?
Yeah, I didn’t know.
But I got an idea, last year, when I visited some of the great cathedrals in England.
Some of the old parishioners, with clout, and even some Great Men, were buried under the floors of the cathedrals. Then a headstone, or entire gravestone, was placed in the floor over the spot, with their name, and birthdates, and deathdates, and maybe some other inscription, by which they’d be remembered for eternity.
The really Great Men were lucky, and were placed together in something like Poet’s Corner, where no one can walk. But the normal Joe, or is it Ian in England, say a former bishop, or maybe just a wealthy parishioner, didn’t have such good fortune. He was buried in the aisles, or under the pews, of the cathedral, where people walk, and scrape their chairs, for years and years and years. Slowly but surely the inscriptions in the headstones and gravestones disappear, worn down by the constant shuffling of feet through the years, until one can barely see the outline of the names and years that are inscribed. Then finally, after enough foot shuffling, there’s nothing but unreadable impressions, and you have no idea who is under that stone.
Turns out eternity is about 400 years.
Author/Copyright: Tiger, of tigerwhip.com fame Date Written: 09/15/1994