An Ecclesiates Non sequitur

Recently reading through some notes on Ecclesiastes, I noticed an odd Non sequitur from Quoheleth's comments in chapter 3:

18 I also thought, "As for men, God tests them so that they may see that they are like the animals. 19 Man's fate is like that of the animals; the same fate awaits them both: As one dies, so dies the other. All have the same breath; man has no advantage over the animal. Everything is meaningless. 20 All go to the same place; all come from dust, and to dust all return. 21 Who knows if the spirit of man rises upward and if the spirit of the animal goes down into the earth?"

The point is that viewed from a horizontal perspective that Quoheleth has adopted "under the Sun", it isn't clear what the post-mortem fate is of man or animal. The Non sequitur made by the (unnamed) commentator was that this addressed the modern folly of pet cemeteries!

Unless you are a young earth creationists, the earth is considerably older than 6000 years. For some 40,000 years, dogs have been hanging around firstly our refuse tips (yes, that is why puppies do that!) and now our homes. They have been humanised without becoming human. I had dogs when I grew up and have owned/looked after our dog for 10 years. Naturally, I have become intensely found of my Labrador, and he of me (in his own doggy way).

To mourn a lost pet is natural; people mourn the loss of others to death or relationship breakdown, the loss of jobs or life-roles (empty nest syndrome), and so on. Pet cemeteries may speak of extravagance, but I am not sure Quoheleth applies here. One person's sentimentalism is an others heart felt grief.

Beware eisegesis! More on Ecclesiastes as I go