epitaph

Today, at 8am, I had to decide what I want written on my tombstone.

A lot of co-workers have recently had relatives die so for some morbid reason, my boss asked a work trainer to give a training on living your life to the fullest.  He decided to make the audience participation portion be us writing out what we would want to be remembered for.

It was difficult to think about.  I know I want to be cremated.  I think I would like to have Madonna's "I'll Remember" played by orchestral music at my wake but I have never really thought about my tombstone.  This is what I came up with:

I sit beside the fire and think...

by J. R. R. Tolkien

---

I sit beside the fire and think
of all that I have seen,
of meadow-flowers and butterflies
In summers that have been;

Of yellow leaves and gossamer
in autumns that there were,
with morning mist and silver sun
and wind upon my hair.

I sit beside the fire and think
of how the world will be
when winter comes without a spring
that I shall ever see.

For still there are so many things
that I have never seen:
in every wood in every spring
there is a different green.

I sit beside the fire and think
of people long ago,
and people who will see a world
that I shall never know.

But all the while I sit and think
of times there were before,
I listen for returning feet
and voices at the door.

It's a song from the Fellowship of the Ring and I have loved it since I was sixteen.  I would like to have this written on my tombstone or my plaque or underneath the 20 foot golden statue of me that will be resurrected in my honor.