My dear friend Jan Broek quotes his father (Jan Otto Marius Broek, one of my most influential) on the Afterlife :

No where to go.

...and used that as inspiration for a lovely song that I think he wouldn't mind my sharing with you:

We're still here
Seems many a year
Yes, We're still here
Seems oh so many a year

You may hear us whisper/ through the windblown trees
You may hear us sigh/ in the sunsetting sky
You may glimpse our thoughts/ in the clouds piled on high
You may sense our moods/ in the ever-shifting sea

Refrain:
We're still here
I think you know
We have not gone

No where to go

You may find us at play/ at the birth of the day
And we do draw near/ as the light it fades away
In the night as in the day/ it's in your dreams we wish to stay
In the night as in the day/ it's in your dreams we wish to stay

Refrain:
We're still here
I think you know
We have not gone

No where to go

You may hear us call/ in the deepening fall
You may hear us sing/ in the mists of early spring
You may hear us howl/ in the harsh winter storms
You may hear us laugh/ in the tall summer grass

Refrain:
We're still here
I think you know
We have not gone

No where to go

You may sense our smile/ in the cool moonlight
You may feel our gaze/ in the dark and starry night

Final Refrain:
We're still here
I think you know
We have not gone

No where to go
No where to go

This may be where my cemetery photographs are most relevant, in the vastness of mortuary customs that stretch back to ochre and grave goods and forward through time to such evocative wonders as

(Tenants Harbor)

(Montparnasse)

(Montparnasse)

(Père Lachaise)

Cemeteries serve as places to visit to renew connection, but mostly there's nobody there and gravestones (which are usually put up by the living) generally outlive memory. After 3 generations or so, the personal connection is faded to a kinship category, etc.—Great Aunt Eloise is just a name, with few attached memories. Some cultures have annual graveside rituals, like those in this view of Christmas Eve in the Anglican cemetery in Kuching, Sarawak:

and Chinese and Japanese and Korean families maintain ancestral altars, so that the names of former generations are remembered.

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(go to Start page, to Black Box, to The Hole Left Behind,
to Preparation, to Realizations, to Modalities)