Driving to the Hollywood Cemetery this morning I imagined taking a cursory drive through. After having seen so many cemeteries in the past year and taken so many photos and said so many prayers for young and old souls how could I be impressed or moved by another gravestone? Yet this was a must see, so I was told, in part due to the presidents, politicians, generals and other 'notables' interred here.
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| James Monroe |
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| Julia Tyler age 21 |
I first chose only one or two monuments to visit. Up Confederate Ave, to the right is the Confederate monument, which I first avoided, and instead headed down to the road along the James that led to Presidents Circle. There I found James Monroe's tomb enclosed by a cathedral like metal housing. And around this were the stones and statues of President Tyler's family. One is of his daughter Julia, an angel topping her stone and the age that she died-21. What is her story? What is her STORY? Sitting on a bench, looking out over the James River, this is what guided my prayers and silent conversation. The question to all around me: What is your story? What did you leave to the world? What did you do in life to deserve the glowing words of praise on your stone?
Why? Did you believe so fervently that your cause was just, that defense of slavery was enough of a reason to cause your people to bleed? I sat and spoke with him about this. At first he only answered with his other accomplishments, as a West Point graduate, a soldier, a U.S. Senator, U.S Secretary of War. Only after I moved to behind him did he introduce himself as President Davis through his wife Varina. But I did not get an answer. I will have to keep asking.
At the Confederate monument, and the soldiers' field I did not question. Rather I found myself gently touching the headstones, whispering to each of them, "Rest". Yitkadal, yitkadash...(the first words of the Jewish prayer for mourners)
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