Hello... I'm sharing this post by Pepe Woodstock, which I think is wonderful. It's about Día de Muertos, this past November 2nd. See what you think, I hope you enjoy it. Sanuk (sanuk: Thai concept of finding joy and lightness in everything).

Carved in Stone

Epitaphs are phrases placed over graves to honor the death of a loved one. Their use dates back to Greek and Roman antiquity, where they were typically inscribed on burial slabs. But an epitaph need not be written in verse, and beyond conveying a special message about the deceased, or reminding the reader of their own mortality, it carries a permanence that mirrors the tomb itself. Biblical quotations and aphorisms are common choices, though the form has long since migrated into literature, and it is not unusual for writers to compose the very phrase that will grace their headstone. In this way, epitaphs become a peculiar form of expression, one that underscores all the strivings, stratagems, and contraptions that human beings fashion against oblivion, humor included, if we are willing to accept that, socially and culturally, death is a value in crisis.

But rather than keep talking your ear off, I'll let the epitaphs speak for themselves. Here is a selection from different graves, different corners of the world, different authors, from the anonymous to the signed, but above all, with different ways of bidding farewell, or of saying goodbye on one's own terms, to those who got there ahead of us.

A Humorous Epitaph. A certain solemnity in irony I once told my friends but above all, let us practice a tragic sense of humor.

And yes, indeed, they all laughed until they cried when they heard I had died.

Epitaph for the Woman Who Died of Love. An old woman passed away from love, and here she was laid to rest;

let the forewarned consider that if she died lovesick just imagine how she must have lived.

A Literal Epitaph.

He died to the letter.

(Raúl Renán).

An Epitaph on Account.

The shoddy old scoundrel arrived here a year ago.

He paid his tribute to the earth...

it was the only thing he ever paid.

Antonio Plaza (1833–1882).

A Bitter Epitaph. Joaquín Pasos died.

God forgive him!

We won't.

Ernesto Mejía Sánchez (1923–1985).

Here lies Molière, king of actors.

At this moment he is playing dead, and honestly, he's very convincing.

(Molière's epitaph for himself).

Nature and its laws lay hidden in darkness;

God said: "Let Newton be!" And there was light.(Sir Alexander Pope, epitaph for his friend Sir Isaac Newton).It's not that I was superior. It's that the others were inferior.(Epitaph of Orson Welles).Here you lie and lie you well, now you rest and so do I.(Epitaph from a grateful widow, for her husband).See? I told you I was sick.(Epitaph of the hypochondriac).This is what happens to bad boys.(Epitaph of Alfred Hitchcock).Here lies X, like a hero among his victims.(Epitaph for the doctor, according to Schopenhauer).Here lies Aunt Carmelita,who lived and died a spinster,her life a long season of horrors:no hits, no runs, no errors.(Epitaph for Aunt Carmelita).R.I.P.

Let us celebrate our departed this Día de Muertos...

Posted by Pepe Woodstock for soloporescribir on 11/02/2008