Fear of Graveyards

I can't quite put my finger on it, but there is something about walking through graveyards that gives me chills. I wish I could explain it; I think it has something to do with the fact that I feel very uncomfortable with the idea of walking on someone's remains. Yes, I'm aware that people are buried six feed underground. Also, depending on how long they've been in the ground, the people in the graves have  decomposed to bare remains. Finally, thousands, if not millions of people walk through graveyards every day. I know and understand all of this, but I still can't manage to shake the cold feeling I get when I walk in front of a tombstone. It feels almost disrespectful to me, as if I were walking on grass that I've been told to keep off of. When I finally die, too, I can't help but feel like I wouldn't want people stepping all over my plot. This made the visit to the memorial yesterday somewhat difficult for me; there were few visible and easily accessible walkways other than the main one straight through the cemetery. Everywhere I went, I felt like I was stepping on someone's feet, or their face, or some other squished body part. I tried to put it in the back of my mind, but the exercise proved somewhat difficult for me. I was still touched by what I saw at the memorial yesterday, however. Being from the north, I've never visited a southern cemetery before, and I was amazed at the prevalence of the confederate flags that rested upon the graves of the soldiers. I'll be honest when I say that I didn't think people really still felt so strongly about the Civil War. It's never something that I'll be fully able to understand, but all the same it was still a very moving and important visit for me to experience. - Pauline Marting