Estate sale

Is this all there is? When all is said and done, the body in a box due for the hungry fire or the hungry earth (except, these days, it doesn't really go to ground unless one specifies a green kind of funeral, does it? Usually the body just turns into human soup and bones stew bubbling in its' own gases in the fancy sealed against moisture rectangular pot).

After the body has gone or, really, the being, what is left? Boxes of clothes, paperwork, medicines, jewelry, hair products ... toilet paper? Maybe perfume on a scarf or a lingering scent on a pillow case? All those nameless items are sorted through, some bound for the goodwill, some bound for the dump, some becoming a keepsake, a family heirloom - hopefully with a story.

...but what is left of the being? The memories? Yes, in a way but those memories exist from others and only include the face or facet of the deceased, of the actions this person took or didn't take, an auditory memory of a laugh or sob. But of the being? The thoughts and feelings that no one had ever witnessed. The core of a body (or the core that is separate from the body) that no other body ever sees despite some of the romantics who insist that they "know" their soul mate/child/sibling/parent/friend. The core. The essence is gone.

So what is left?

Some believe the energy or soul ascends into another plane or being upon this place, that that is what is left - this immortality painted in abstract colors, this painting that helps those on the brink of nothing go into the void as well as those left behind, peering over the edge.