A Thing of Beauty

A thing of beauty is a joy for ever:
Its loveliness increases; it will never
Pass into nothingness; but still will keep
A bower quiet for us, and a sleep
Full of sweet dreams, and health, and quiet breathing.

John Keats, Endymion

I stopped by the Chrysalis yesterday afternoon to experience the Celebration in the Woods first-hand. (More on that later in the week.)

While I was there I had a thought which has never before occurred to me in any other location: maybe I’d want to be buried here. 

Not what you were expecting? Me, either. I’ve never really felt that way.

But yesterday, looking up at the cool, green curves of the Chrysalis, and enjoying the sight of families exploring the space with their children, I thought: if I am going to rest someplace forever, I think I’d like to be here.

Perhaps this is a sign of my age creeping up on me. My sixtieth birthday  is looming in the Spring. My “baby” will be graduating from high school. I sometimes read obituaries in the paper. 

But, more than that, I am becoming more and more convinced that my involvement with the park is one of the most significant things I will do in my lifetime. The joy that the Chrysalis and Merriweather Park in Symphony Woods will bring to our community will long outlive me. That’s a good feeling.


I don’t think for one minute that the Inner Arbor Trust has plans to go into the columbarium business. And I’m not sure it truly matters to me that my physical remains be in one particular spot. No matter what happens on that front, the work that so many of us have put into the Park will live on.

Besides, there’s a little piece of me there already.