Hunter and I are currently work a MMAP project in Benson, Arizona. One day last week I traveled with a group of ladies to the city of Tombstone. It was a fascinating peek back in history to a time of swinging door saloons, street gunfights, drunken cowboys, and gaudy brothels. Tombstone boomed with 10,000 or more residents during the late 1800s, when the silver mines were dripping with wealth. Humility was a character trait not found in this area as evidenced by the slogan stamped on Tombstone-The Town Too Tough To Die!
Let's return to the topic of epitaphs. During the day we took a stroll through Boothill Grave Yard with its more than 250 graves.
Read the epitaph on the following tombstone marker:
Another marker had the following statement:
Here lies Lester Moore
Four slugs from a .44,
No Les, no More.
(Moore was a Wells Fargo agent and had a dispute with a man over a package. Both died.)
Wyatt Earp, sheriff of Tombstone had the following on his grave marker (not one on Boothill)
"Nothings so sacred as honour and Nothings so loyal as love.
Winston Churchill's epitaph reads: "I am ready to meet my Maker, Whether my Maker is prepared for the great ordeal of meeting me is another matter."
George Washington's last words imprinted for all to see read: "Looking into the portals of eternity teaches that the brotherhood of man is inspired by God's word; Then all prejudice of race vanishes away."
After thinking about this challenge for a day or two I'd like mine to read:
"Used up for Jesus".
Now the question remains-what would you put on your gravestone for future generations to read?
2 comments:
I loved this. Very interesting. My tomb stone (if I don't fly first) will read
JESUS, I hope they saw you in me:)
Well put. The pioneers that created Toumbstone and other frontier towns led the way for millions to follow and improve on what they started. I'd want an epitaph to say something like, "here lies an honorable man who used his time on earth to improve on what he found, through God's guidance"
It was good seeing you and my older brother again after so many years!
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