Still here.

So I'm walking through the graveyard with four students. It's a field trip. I'm surrounded by the living and the dead. The living are the four lads, enjoying Spring weather, full of banter, stories and a lust for life. The dead are... well, I don't have to explain, do I?
Saint Stephen's cemetery has 'em all. The unmarked graves, the familiar plots of my loved ones and distant relations. And friends that broke my heart. It also has the marble mausoleums befitting Roman generals that can be seen from space. It's all irrelevant really. Those in the ground have left an impression on those above it. Those above it are wasting their time building monoliths. Of course my Father-in-law used to say 'there's no pockets in a shroud' so if you feel like emptying Tuscany of all it's marble, then go ahead!
Me personally, I'm kinda hoping for something small. And I'd really like to be alone in it for a very long time. I mean, I'd be hoping my missus and kids would have crazy-long lives and leave me to it for a while. They'd deserve a break anyway. Besides, somehow I can't see me being around, sarcastic and irreverent at 90. But then that's the beauty of life, ain't it? We have no clue! I might be around in forty years, a bitter old man and still smiling gummily. I may have won the lottery and decided on a crypt bigger than any warehouse. Or I might be laid to rest in a pauper's grave, forgotten, unknown, unloved. Who knows?
The main thing is I'm not worried. You see, I'm living right now. I feel life. I'm aware, still moving, thinking. Still HERE.
I walked between the rows of graves and headstones today in the balm of sunlight and fresh air. I had the great company of my students. They exude life. Have a healthy disdain for authority. Come from vastly different backgrounds and situations. There they were, eating ice-cream cones, as we strolled through a who's who of the loved and the damned, the revered and forgotten. And it felt important. Why? I think the living have a duty to be alive. I know that those I loved and lost and who now lie in graves we passed today did... they LIVED. And I know that taking a half-hour and traipsing around the graveyard with a group of happy-go-lucky young souls for company, reminded me that, yes, I am living, I'm still HERE, keeping good company. If "Every day above ground is a good one", then today was great.