It's only natural that there are superstitions surrounding cemeteries. As a kid I remember being told that you had to hold your breath whenever you passed a cemetery. That didn't really work for me, because I lived across the street from a cemetery during my entire childhood.



It was a little country cemetery, bordered by fields and forest. It probably had about a hundred occupants, dating back to the 1880s. I used to play in it, looking at the tombstones and pretending to talk to the… Continue

When I was a child, my family had a framed print with an old man and a motto underneath that said, "Never regret growing older; it's a privilege denied to many." I can still see it in my mind's eye - the old man's weather-beaten hat, the driftwood frame, hung on our old wood paneling.



It's a very Irish Catholic, gloomy, guilt-inducing thing to say, like when my Great-Grandfather Hughes used to tell us that if we saw a penny on the street and didn't pick it up, "you'll see the day… Continue

National Public Radio produces a segment called "This I Believe," and it's just fantastic. People from all walks of life contribute essays around the topic of what they believe. (Just like the title says.)



Anyway, NPR broadcast one essay in particular that's always stuck with me, and it's called "Always Go to the Funeral." The author Deirdre Sullivan says that her father taught her the lesson that you should always attend the funerals of people you know, and that it's very important… Continue