I find it very strange that, given my interest in history and genealogy, I don't hold a graveyard in the same high regard others do. Or maybe I should say a grave. Yesterday my sister and I drove past a cemetery where a friend was buried and she asked if I wanted to stop. I said no and she told me how she stops whenever she is in the area to see him.
I get that she doesn't mean that literally. I, too, have stopped to see my loved ones that way. And I love a cemetery. I think of cemeteries as tangible history. I could wander one for hours, even if none of my people were buried there. But I do things others consider disrespectful. I walk across the graves and sit on the headstones - when I'm dead, you may feel free to do the same to mine. I've been given grief for taking a shortcut through a graveyard instead of driving on 'real' roads.
What I do see disrespect in is the folks who 'walk' their dogs in the graveyard. The ones who take things off the graves - flowers, trinkets, whatever. The difference is simple - these things are important to someone. To steal from someone or poop on what is important to them is blatant disrespect. You know perfectly well you shouldn't do it and you also know you'd be angry if someone did it to you.
I suppose that's the difference. I suppose it all goes back to the Golden Rule.
Anyway, it is odd. I love a graveyard, the older the better. But I also don't understand the problem when a cemetery is abandoned. Clearly, whoever loved these folks has moved on. The cemetery has outlived its purpose - to comfort the living.
Anyway, it is odd to love history and genealogy, yet not to buy the idea that a graveyard is sacred ground. Each individual grave is sacred ground to someone, yes, but that's an entirely different matter.
