Roadside Shrines.

Several weeks ago during the exceptionally warm days of late January a local man got on a motorcycle and decide to ride down a few country roads. On one windy road he missed a turn, went through a fence and was killed.

The road was the same one I drive daily to take my son to school. I'll admit that when it first happened I was sort of wondering which curve he missed and what fence he went over. I wasn't quite prepared for the wreath, though. It really gave me an icky feeling. Now the broken barbed wire is more obvious and the curve just seems creepier.

There just seem to be more and more spots where there are memorials to death. The state highway administration allows the simple white crosses to stay, though I must say that the offerings left at some of them are pretty elaborate.

Personally I don't think that I would want to envision my loved one's spirit hanging around the place of their (often) violent death. If their spirit is going to stay close to us I'd rather think of them hanging out someplace they love or with someone they love. Better that than at a broken barbed wire fence on a sharp curve, even if it is a pretty country road.

TTFN.