When Mormons say things at funerals like,
I knew...
I loved...
They were...
Hey! Where is your faith?! They still exist. They are somewhere else, but still living, if not where we can see them. You STILL know and love them, I should hope, and they are the same person as when in this mortal life. They aren't lost or gone... just visibly absent. I mean, really!
Well, I occaisonally refer to friends I left in Colorado as "used to be"'s. It's just that sometimes we get caught up in the present and that's all we realize, that friends that are gone are gone. I mean, it's kinduv a daunting thing for a close one to be gone for the rest of your life, with zero commincation or contact. I think people have faith, the problem is that half the time we don't realize it. you can go on and on about how someone is "Still there" but when it comes down to it.. they're not.
ReplyDeleteNot that I don't agree or anything. I'm just very good at knkowing what people are thinking.
Wait, did you just go to a funeral recently?
I thought as I was writing it, "Hey, they'll all be wondering who died..."
ReplyDeleteNo, it's just been a nagging in the back of my mind for a while.
But that is something I can't comprehend. Even if we didn't continue to exist after this life, I'd still prefer to say "I know them" because I didn't forget them. I still feel about them the same way. To me, it's not a past-tense thing. I mean, when I die, I don't want people to talk to me in past-tense, I want people to think of me as very much myself, still Me, not one iota different, except for the, you know, visible/tangible part.
Although, I see what you're saying and sympathize.