Take Down That Memorials! By Force (Part Deux)

Man has built in himself images as a fence of security – religious, political, personal. These manifest as symbols, ideas, beliefs. The burden of these images dominates man’s thinking, his relationships, and his daily life. These images are the cause of our problems, for they divide man from man.
--Jiddu Krishnamurti (1895-1986, Indian Philosopher)

Again I was reading up on opinions that people have towards roadside memorials. More of the same responds "sorry about your loss... but grieve in private"; "those things are dangerous... distracting drivers."; and even "I am sick of those dam memorials... I don't want to be reminded of death."

But my opinion is that these memorials are not about death. For death can be honored at the gravesite. I feel that the memorials are about life!

Huhhh! you say.

Well memorials say more about the person who puts it up then the person who has passed. It talks about what they have to deal with now that their loved one is gone. They express their loss and serve it to the world to take a drink. Some of us taste the soup of death and call it bitter, while other savor it for what it is - A fact of life. Allow them to expresses their world and the experience of it.

"a man's dying is more the survivor's affair than his own"
- Thomas Mann

I want to believe that these memorials are about life, love, remembrance & ultimately a celebration of life itself. I want to believe that the family are concerned for their fellow human being and are warning us to drive safely.

So my way of accepting - no creating! - my life is to see what is available for me out of this experience. What I see available is to experience life to the fullest & to see life in the following way:

Life :: Life is a glorious cycle of song (- Dorothy Parker)
Love :: Love is a thing that can never go wrong (- Dorothy Parker)
Remembrance :: Live in the present & make it beautiful (- Ida Scott Taylor)
Celebration :: Praising what is lost makes the remembrance dear (- Shakespeare)

I will create myself as a being with "images" of life that do not serve as my fences...
...but serve as windows to the world. Here is where I will survey the horizon and from where I can step outward to what is possible.