Montparnasse Cemetery

The Montparnasse Cemetery is one of two cemeteries located within the peripherique in Paris. Heather, Christian and myself wandered through for a while looking for a few celebrity graves, more discussion on how odd that is here. (via Christian). There is some real beautiful gravestones there, paired with some odd ones (see the faux-ruins above). I'm not sure how I react to cemeteries - usually I'm pretty detached from the whole landscape. I typically only react when I see the graves of people my own age.
Going to the cemetery really made me think about two things:
1) The book I'm reading right now - White Noise by Don Delillo. The protagonist (and his wife) really struggle with inevitability of death, your own death. Why don't all people constantly fear ceasing to exist? How do you escape this fear, if it permeates your everyday life? This probably isn't the best elevator pitch for the book, but I really recommend picking it up for your next read.
2) The Normandy American Cemetery, - the last cemetery I had visited until Montparnasse and undoubtedly the most powerful thing I have ever seen. Really, this all happened before our time so I don't think we ever really grasped the enormity of D-Day, or its importance to the free world in Western Europe. France likely would not exist if it were not for the United States. There would be no France! Think about it! When I left that site I remember thinking "Man, France really has a short memory. How dare they treat any American poorly!" Who would think it; I really sounded like a red-blooded Republican (I'm not).

Which leads me to another point - international relations are incredibly dynamic. The same sort of short term memory that currently posits United States in unfavorable light to France also has its benefits: Japan is now an ally! I was treated extremely well by the Japanese when I visited, and by my previous logic, I should not be welcome there at all. So, its a double-edged sword, that international short term memory.