"The cemeteries are full of people who thought they were irreplaceable"

You don't have to read much or watch much media or travel very far to see how life has become a pretty devalued currency. Just watch the "Animal Planet". In Chicago, it's pretty easy to become hardened to death, at least the semi-anonymous ones. On the 4th of July somewhere around 11 people were murdered, and this morning's paper tells me that overnight 2 are dead and 8 injured by gunfire. It's like following the sports scores. Unless it's your team, the stats don't mean that much.

Across the media, the recent surge in celebrity deaths ("theses things come in...thirteens?"), and the national coverage of the Burr Oak cemetery desecration continues the drumbeat. [I know I'm being irreverent ---why stop now? ---doesn't anyone realize this is a Chicago cemetery and the bodies probably went out to vote in the last election and are a bit tardy getting back?]

All of this serves to tell us both that life is cheap and also incredibly dear,and it is easy to lose faith in face of the sheer numbers of outrages. At the very least, it demonstrates how meaningless our bodies become after we shed them.

Buechner opines that if all the evil and death in the universe was gathered up, it would fill only a tiny cup when compared to all the life and good of which we are unaware.