Ground that Remembers You

[talktooloose]

Snake and I watched "Fugitive Pieces" the other night, the beautiful film based on Anne Michaels novel which has been important to us both.

There is a line in it — "Try to be buried in land that remembers you..." — that led me to ask Snake if he wanted to buried in Hungary when he died.
He replied that he doesn't have a special connection with that ground or any other in particular. He just wants to be buried beside me.

It is said that once you leave your homeland, you don't ever really belong anywhere and I know that is true for him on many levels. On the other hand, I wonder how much this place — Toronto; Canada; here — is the place I belong. More than I realize, I'd imagine, though I often see myself as a spectator and anthropologist rather than an inhabitant.

However, this abstracted identity is probably affectation. I am moved by the quality of light, the knowledge of ice, the quality of eye contact in ways I would not be were I born elsewhere.

So bury me here, and bury him beside me. Deal?

Comments

[painglass.livejournal.com]

I love that line "Try to be buried in land that remembers you..." Beautiful. I don't want to spend any more time in Wisconsin, but I can't imagine being buried anywhere else in the world. I love that Snake just wants to spend his death besides you. Romantic and sweet. I doubt I'll have any say at all in it, but deal! :)

[talktooloose.livejournal.com]

Yes, we don't get all that much say what happens to us. I think that it can be comforting for the surviving spouse to have a grave to visit.

The line is directly from the novel. If you haven't read it, YOU MUST!