As a child when I was told a relative died, the explanation also included details about angel wings and how my grandfather or great aunt could watch me from the clouds. It was great comfort to a seven year old, and on long car trips I’d stare at the sky trying to pick out my grandmother’s heavy nose in the white fluff above. I thought if I could see her in the clouds, certainly she could see me. Fast forward two decades later and I have to ask, do the dead read Facebook posts?
Twice I’ve noticed friends write a “RIP (dead relative)” on the anniversary of the deceased’s exit from the earth. I suppose it’s more of a cry for support and sympathy than an actual cyber-message to the no longer living. But does it cheapen the sorrow for or love of a lost relative? Or does the soul exit the Earth as electronically processed kilobytes with a golden key to a wireless paradise. (You’d also have to accept the afterlife as well as Eye of Providence, but perchance, maybe you do.)
We open ourselves up on the Internet and to some people nothing is sacred, or the sacred is meant to be shared, in 140 characters.
