02-05-2006
Roadside memorials always bother me. Most of them look pretty makeshift…some have cardboard crosses, candles, flowers and stuffed animals…all designating the spot where the victim suffered their demise. This one looks a little more sophisticated. I’m not sure what made this “Chris’s Corner”, and considering the moment of grief, I can overlook a punctuation error.
It’s not the tackiness of the decorations that bothers me; it’s the fact that these people are being memorialized at the location of their death. That seems random and irrational. I don’t want people to come to the place where I died…what if I died like Elvis while sitting on the toilet? That would not be good for the flowers.
Our culture has some strange rituals related to people dying. The whole funeral industry seems hyper-morbid and geared more for the sadness of those left behind, and the greed of those ready to provide this “service”. And in our sadness, we sometimes try to make someone’s death meaningful by using it to encourage better behavior in others. The bottom of this monument says, “Please Don’t Drink and Drive”. But hey, if it saves one life…
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Ron Nabity Photography 