I have several possible posts floating around in my brain at the moment, all of which having popped up between the hours of 1815 and 2130. What to choose, what to choose... Also, for some reason my cat's forehead smells like chocolate. I keep grabbing his head and holding him close so I can inhale. It's insane.
Okay, I think I know what I'll go for- the rolling memorial.
I was driving down Hwy 31 on my way to a birthday party and (not surprisingly for that time of day) got stuck in a bit of traffic. As such, I took the time to read the bazillion-and-one stickers on the truck in front of me.
Three of them (count 'em: three) were those "In Loving Memory" stickers. The first one was for "My Father" and the dates were 1957-2001. The next two had deaths in March and April of 2009, respectively. The birth years were 1990 and 1996 (again, respectively).
I was pretty freaking horrified by that truck.
What could have happened? What happened that the driver's father died at 44? What happened that those two boys died within a month of one another? Was it related? Did one die instantly and the other linger? And for the love of all that's holy, why would you want a constant reminder on the back of your friggin' vehicle?!
(But maybe that last part is just me.)
It got me to thinking, tho' (and not just about the whole, "What is their story?" angle); what does drive people to do things like that? Memorialize the dead in such a public way, I mean. Which of course led me down the pathway of what the afterlife consists of, and how much we, the living, have to do with what goes on in the so-called lives of the dead. Is it true that they continue to exist only so long as someone remembers them? Is it true that they are forced to carry our tears in lead-lined jars? Does our mourning process help them or hurt them? Or do they even notice?
(Or are they even there- wherever "there" might be?)
Thus do I find story-seeds everywhere; not just in the "Why?" of three strangers' deaths, but also in the "What Next?"
I found this post quite interesting. I too wonder why someone would get something like that on their car, but at the same time I think I MIGHT do some form of tattoo memorial. What is the difference really?
ReplyDeleteThat's the exact same thought that gave me pause- what IS the difference? Why am I kind of appalled by one, and yet would consider the other? I think it maybe comes down to a matter of privacy. By putting it on the vehicle I'd be making my grief public, for anyone to explore and question- but if I were to do a tattoo it would be more of a private thing. Only people I chose to let in on it would even know... But maybe I am just a judgmental snob! ;)
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