As Bright as Heaven

 I just finished reading a book entitled As Bright as Heaven.  It is historical fiction, set between 1918 and 1926.  The family lives with an uncle who is a mortician and half of the house is the funeral home.  The mother reads a book about customs for burial.

"I learned that in every culture in human history, the living have treated their dead with honor and respect, some even with adoration.  There is something sacred about the body when the soul has left it, no matter which corner of the globe or how far back you look."

"You'd think the opposite would be true, that this tent of flesh, which starts to decompose within hours of the soul leaving it, would immediately be cast aside as worthless.  Instead, our mortal remains are given more reverence after Deaths' visit than even before it.

"It's as if the body is a candle and the soul is its flame.  When the flame is snuffed out, all that is left to prove that there had been a flame is the candle and even that we only have for a little while.  Even the candle is not ours to keep.

And yet how we care for that candle for that stretch of time that is still ours!  How we want to remember the shape and fragrance of the little flame it held."

I've thought a lot about that.  First, why do we reverence the dead when we often ignore or revile or judge or harm the living? 

And as individuals... Why don't we recognize that while the candle is of value, the flame has the greatest value?  Do most of us put as much time and effort into caring for our "flame" ...into learning and growing and making our souls beautiful...as we do into our physical bodies?  I am not saying we shouldn't care for our bodies...just that we should also care for our souls and strive to make them beautiful.