Monday, July 15, 2024

Quiet Please

 

It isn't mandatory that cemeteries are quiet, but it is rather a product of fear.  Nobody wants to be noticed when walking past.  Even the postman avoids wearing squeaking shoes as he cuts across to the next street.  If we can pass unnoticed, then we're safe from being next to join the gathering.  No one talks about it, but everyone fears the unknown.  It's human nature.

Accidently dropping a book onto a tile floor, while in the library, sends an uncomfortable shockwave throughout the building.  It is the feeling of that shockwave that, in a cemetery, gets magnified whenever someone uses their outside voice. 

There exists an odd correlation between an undertaker and a librarian.  An unwritten volume adjustment has been a key part of their education.  Their indoor voice becomes their final exam.