Buddhist temple, cemeteries, blunts, and 40’s

When looking at the first picture above, it could be a tad misleading. What do you see in this photo? The photo screams tropical oasis, the end of a good day at a resort, arriving to a resort at the end of the day, the beginning of a fun night in a vacation destination, the photo say’s everything you wouldn’t expect it to say. As the person who took it, I kind of wondered, who would ever think this photo was taken at a cemetery? Our perception, what we perceived was life when looking at the photo only for us to be introduced to a whole new concept. Welcome to Rose Hills. 

Now I know most of you are thinking, time to find a new place to hang buddy. Yeah, I would think the same thing, however, my grandmother is buried up there. I went to go take her flowers and was amazed at the wonderful views. Okay, let me explain to you the oddness of Rose Hills. Rose Hills lies East of Los Angeles and on a clear day, you can see the whole city and even the ocean. That’s not odd. This is what’s odd or different I should say, Rose Hills has hiking trails, people exercise here, Rose hills also has a chapel and higher up in the hills, a Buddhist temple can be found. Since the Hills have roads that lead off deeper into the wilderness, it attracts a lot of drug users, alcohol drinkers and other un wanted people; also, I’m not sure if this is rumored but, there is satanic temple up there as well. 

Rose Hills is the complexity of life all rolled into one spot. On this hill, late rapper Eazy-E can be found. At his grave, you’ll find people smoking a blunt or having a drink with Eazy-E at his grave. Drug users and Buddhist monks, priest, and satanic temples, exercise junkies walking up hiking trails for health, to live longer in a cemetery is the complexity of this place. I understand, that can be motivation, really, I see it as symbolic. Rose Hills, has been known to have sightings of ghost and also a gravity hill. This place is a mystery in its own and attracts many ghost hunters; as a matter of fact, I have a photo I took which I’m not sure, could be a malfunction of the camera or it could be a ghost? You decide. 

                                                           This is the first photo I took

                                                      A few seconds later in the same spot

 I took these photos the day I went to put flowers on my grandmothers grave; I think some part of me hopes that was her in the photo and not a glitch. lol 

In life, we fight with each other, we see other points of view and come to peace with each other only to fight again because of our difference. In Rose Hills, it shows  you that none of that matters because it breaks down all boundary’s of what makes sense and difference; it shows that we are one. Drug users and people who exercise are the same, my grandfather who is a World War II Vet is buried in these hills, and some of the people buried up there, have relatives who survived the bomb America dropped in Japan, let’s get really odd, those grandparents of mine, are my step grandparents, one polish, one Japanese, I’m black. Color is broken down, the odd ways of human are accepted and the strangeness of man has become connected with the dead; the interaction and the thin divided line between dimensions, the warmth between the wild and the city, the gaze of a coyote, its unintended rude ways running across the grave meets are intended rude ways of occupying it’s home with religious facts and our precious way’s of honoring the dead, when coyote’s die, their just left to rot and eaten by the animals of the hills.

Moving away from death,(The irony in that) because I see this taking a turn for the worse, my main focus here was connection. Dead, living, race, destroying or rebuilding, devil worshiper or in the temple, praising God, letting go and awing at the wonderful view of Los Angeles, drugged out of your mind or drunk off your ass, everyone is searching for peace; the dead have found it and the living are still searching for it may it be through exercise or destroying your insides at a cemetery. (Yeah, irony in that as well) I often wonder how many times have the ambulance got a call to save someone’s life at Rose Hills. Anyways, I’m going to leave you on a upbeat note, and end this with a nice picture, I mean were all looking for peace right? =) 

                        

                        If you squint on both Pictures, you can see Los Angeles skyline in the distance.