Elk Grove Cemetery

Here's an example of the essential selectivity of photos, or any visual image -- how, if framed just so, a small picture misses the big picture. Despite temps at roughly freezing, I visited a new cemetery on Saturday and created an image of a quiet, snow-covered God's acre:

It's the Elk Grove Cemetery. Snow-covered, yes. Quiet, no. Barely visible in the background is a traffic light on a six-lane surface road, Arlington Heights Road. To the right of where I stood, not captured by the camera, is I-90 -- the Northwest Tollway around here, but the same Interstate that connects Seattle and Boston -- maybe a 100 feet away.

But the noise of traffic wasn't all of the noise. Behind me as I took the picture, soaring over the cemetery and next to the highway, are electric transmission lines. They gave off a constant hum, different enough from the background traffic noise to not blend in with it. Those noises are the beginnings of an antisymphony; just add a jackhammer, chain saw and the noise of a jet engine for a real hellish din.

Still, I wanted to go there. I've been driving by the place for years. It must have been quiet once, since some of its stones predate automobiles and the use of electricity by mankind.