Sunday Afternoon Post: The Tomb of the King

Any tour of the American South should include a stay in Memphis, one of the great capitals of all sorts of crazy (good) music.  Of course, the crown attraction in Memphis is Graceland, the shockingly modest home of Elvis Presley.  Graceland is absolutely charming, a small scale plantation house that he selected primarily as a place for his parents to enjoy a better life at.  Unlike many celebrity compounds, it is not garish, and while a ton of circus-atmosphere tourist junk clutters the road for miles in either direction, the grounds and house themselves are places of quiet awe.  One of the high points of the grounds tour is a trip to the graves in the meditation garden.

Many people leave flowers and wreathes here still.  No one makes a peep of sound at the tomb, even though no signs direct visitors to silence.  It is a very peaceful place that seems to have the same effect on people that most grand churches do, if not more so.  Come to think of it, more people whisper in churches...

The meditation garden also features the resting places of his parents, and a few Catholic elements that raise some interesting questions about his spirituality.

While Elvis attended an Assembly of God Church and is known for injecting quite a lot of gospel and even themes of social justice into his music (including the release of three strictly religious albums), he never publicly commented on his faith, and he certainly lived enough of the celebrity lifestyle in the 70's to raise questions about the seriousness of his convictions.  What is more interesting than this sort of conjecture, however, is why a Bible-belt Protestant would want a statue of the Sacred Heart of Jesus at his final resting place.  Although he did like to dip from the buffet a bit when contemplating God and religion in general, let's face it, the late 60's and 70's multicultural fascination did not typically include traditional Catholicism as a feature.

Maybe this is not much of a mystery after all, but a confirmation of the incredible impact the man had on the history of North America.  You can dislike his music, you can dislike his "wild hip swinging", but it is hard to deny the role he had in fostering acceptance of African-Americans by the general public during the stormy civil-rights battles.  Elvis was definitely one of the greatest agents of change in ending segregation.  Perhaps it is not so shocking to see such a statue here, at the resting place of a man who broke down barriers.