Many jobs today are unheard of ... unheard of, that is, by me. Meet a young person. Ask what they do. There's a good chance they work with computers, medicine, consulting or project management ... with incomprehensible job titles. Again, incomprehensible to me.

My careers were in smaller organizations with few specialties or high tech jobs. So, my experiences were limited. I try to be open and to learn when I meet these "new careerists." Still, there's the feeling of foreignness about today's jobs.

Here's a photo that illustrates the new world of jobs.

I'm self-conscious about posting this topic:  Memorial Day 2012. I have conflicting feelings.

The holiday originated after the Civil War as a remembrance of men and women who died in military service. (Although now it's evolved into a day where we honor deceased relatives, whether or not in the military).

If I post pretty pictures of a ceremony that honors those who were in the military, am I, in a way, justifying war?

That's a question my pacifist, peace activist, strongly anti-war friends might ask me. I don't want to offend them.

On the other hand, my photos will not offend friends who will see the pictures as patriotic, honoring those who served our country. These friends might actually be offended by my hesitation to publish patriotic pictures.

Personally, I'm becoming more of a pacifist, more disturbed that our country - and the world - spends so much on the military and so little on understanding aggression and seeking peace. At the same time, I feel a sense of honor and gratitude toward those who served in the military.

These are contradictory feelings in me. I'm conflicted. However, I'm still publishing the pictures because they are an interesting visual record of an event. That's the photo-journalist part of me. I like to tell stories with photos.

Perhaps someday I'll post a story on peace activists ... and risk offending my patriotic friends.

To see more photos of the Memorial Day event and the cemetery, click here. The cemetery was the Minneapolis Pioneer and Soldiers Memorial Cemetery, Cedar Avenue and Lake Street.

To read about the cemetery's interesting history, click here.

Can someone buy a cemetery, and then turn around and use it for a ballpark, or a factory, or an office building?

In our time, that sounds outrageous. Almost 100 years ago, people didn't like the idea either. Someone, though, was actually buying back the deeds to cemetery lots already in use, thereby making progress toward owning it. Around 7,000 bodies had been dug up and moved to other cemeteries. But the public outrage was so strong that in 1927 Minneapolis stepped in and bought the whole cemetery.

It's still a cemetery: the Minneapolis Pioneers and Soldiers Memorial Cemetery, commonly called Layman's Cemetery, at the corner of Cedar Avenue and Lake St.

In the early 1900s, during the "buy back period," the cemetery was in poor repair. Over many decades, though, citizens groups have fixed it up. In 2002 it was placed on the National Register of Historic Places.

Some cemeteries are very pretty. Layman's Cemetery's beauty is "subtle." It has plenty of interesting history though. What I know of it's history came from the Hennepin History magazine, Summer 2003. Here are a few things of interest.

Ordinary people are buried here, not the rich and famous. That probably explains why there are few large or elaborate gravestones or monuments.

It is estimated that 27,000 people were buried here between 1853 and 1919. Since then, only a few have - those who can prove they have relatives already there.

The majority of those buried in the cemetery died of communicable diseases such as tuberculosis, typhoid fever, or pneumonia. Children, who make up half of those in the cemetery, often died of cholera, diphtheria, pneumonia and enterocolitis. 

The Hennepin History publication tells heartbreaking stories, tales of notorious characters, and plenty of good history.

I visited the cemetery on Memorial Day, May 28, 2012 - the 144th Memorial Day observance held there. For photos of my visit, click here. 

I'm have mixed feelings about publishing the Memorial Day photos on the web. To see why, click here to read the blog.

The human brain has billions of interconnected thoughts. Thinking one thought can set off a chain reaction of thoughts. My chain was started by photographing a deer. I went from deer to cars to evolution to God.

At Fort Snelling State Park, I startled a deer. At first the deer held its ground, trying to make a decision. At 50 feet, he decided to move into the woods.

This made me wonder about how unprepared deer are to deal with cars, especially at night. Cars with bright blinding lights didn't exist while deer were evolving. So deer lack "car-sense."

Cars didn't exist during human evolution. Do humans lack "car-sense?" We're adaptable creatures, with flexible brains. We invented cars and are pretty good at using them. But is it possible there is some aspect of cars we are not good at? Are there consequences of technology that evolution did not prepare us for? For example, our wonderful multi-tasking brains take us away from paying attention to driving.

The next thought in the evolution-chain came later in the day while reading about aid to Haiti after the 2010 devastating earthquake (where thousands were killed). My thoughts on human evolution and "car-sense" were replaced by evolution and "God-sense." Some Haitians who received aid, such as a new house, thanked God for intervening and helping them. My thought was "non-sense." Please God, if you are going to intervene, do it before all those deaths. 

People's thoughts about God are varied and controversial. Thoughts range from knowing exactly what God thinks to knowing definitely that God doesn't exist. I've got my opinions and questions. I believe in human evolution and wonder where, in those millions of years, "God-sense" entered the picture. It's fascinating to study the relationship between religious diversity, evolution and brain science.

Deer evolved with a "car-sense" blind spot. No doubt we humans evolved with blind spots for living in a modern world. I suspect that one of them is believing we know what God is like.

Here's the photo of the deer that started this chain of thoughts.