I went to the Memorial Day Lantern Festival in May. If you don't know what it is, it's basically where a bunch of people get together and float lanterns out to sea (sort of). On each of the lanterns is a memorial with letters to loved ones lost, ranging from funny (Grandma, you finally got your cruise!) to sad (to Baby #1, the first set of 2 pink lines we didn't meet) and bittersweet (Grandpa, I know you're in a better place, but everything is a wreck without you). It's a beautiful ceremony as many traditions appear to be intertwined with its performance.

I was in the water watching the lanterns float out to see while some photographers moved around rudely through people's lanterns. I understand that getting the perfect shot with no people in it is important to some people, you know... They do it for the likes. It's art. It's rude, but not nearly as tacky as the next thing I saw.

There was a couple touching the lanterns to take selfies with them. Like really? Do you not understand that you're basically taking pictures with someone's graves? Memorials? I mean people take pictures of memorials all the time...

Regardless of the ceremony, water thematically is intertwined with death in several mythologies. Light generally means a guiding source... But I guess what makes this tacky is that the lantern and light out to sea is essentially supposed to guide these spirits home, and these had no regard for the messages left on these lanterns. No regard for the permanence of death for the impermanence of a snapchat.

If it were my loved one and my selfie with that letter, it makes sense. A stranger with my words will only see them through the blur of a 5mp front-facing camera, and not through the blur of watery eyes. They're holding recycled wood back from floating to sea, without recognizing the new waves of emotions each time we take moments to mourn. They're looking through the lens of a camera and not through the shared human experience.

People do lots of things to show and prove they were somewhere. That's fine. I just hope that the sacredness doesn't get lost as we try to keep the old traditions new. Let's keep the reverence as we revisit our loved ones passing and face death again. I just hope we put down the phones long enough to renew our awe and recognize that very few things yield to the sea - the sea of memories, the sea of time, and the sea of everlasting and overflowing love.