Franklin K. Lane stipulated that when he died his body should be
cremated and the ashes scattered from El Capitan over the beautiful
Yosemite Valley. He thus symbolized what many of us feel--the unity of
our deeper and finer selves with the eternal life and loveliness of
nature.
Oh seek me not within a tomb;
Thou shalt not find me in the clay!
I pierce a little wall of gloom
To mingle with the Day!
I brothered with the things that pass,
Poor giddy Joy and puckered Grief;
I go to brother with the Grass
And with the sunning Leaf.
Not Death can sheathe me in a shroud;
A joy-sword whetted keen with pain,
I join the armies of the Cloud
The Lightning and the Rain.
Oh subtle in the sap athrill,
Athletic in the glad uplift,
A portion of the Cosmic Will,
I pierce the planet-drift.
My God and I shall interknit
As rain and Ocean, breath and Air;
And oh, the luring thought of it
Is prayer!
_John G. Neihardt_
From "The Quest" (collected lyrics).