Age and Youth

Cross bones are common symbols on old Scottish gravestones. Some believe that they mark the graves of pirates but if that were true piracy would have been the career of choice for almost everyone! They are in fact symbols of mortality; along with carved skulls, coffins, hour-glasses, grave-diggers tools, deid bells, and the chilling message Memento Mori, they serve as reminders to the still living that they too must die.

These mossy and lichen-encrusted cross-bones bring to mind J. C. Milne's Doric poem Age and Youth where some-one at the end of life reminds a youth of what is in store.

For you, the Simmer's heicht,
The kennelt funn.
For me, the smorin weicht
O' kirkyard grun.

But fut's the odds?
Fin twa-three years has gane,
There'll aye be sods
Aneuch for you, ma freen.

.........

For you the the height of Summer,
The golden gorse.
For me the smothering weight
Of churchyard soil.

But what's the odds?
When twenty three years have gone,
There will always be sods
Enough for you, my friend!
.............

Have a nice day everyone - carpe diem!