Ok this is going to be a weird post I already know it. But I have spent the last few days driving from one side of the state to the next and then back again, the whole way I kept seeing those little road side crosses all over the place. I hate those little road side crosses for some reason, so I though I would ramble about them for a little bit. I guess part of the reason I dislike them is because I don’t get why they are placed on the road side. OK so yes I know first had how sad it is to loose someone you love and I totally understand why you want to have a spot to morn their life. I mean it’s sad that someone lost their life on that stretch of the highway. And I guess everyone needs to feel like they are getting a little closure. But seriously why do they choose to place a constant reminder right on the site of your loved one death. I mean is it some place you are going to want to return to time and time again? I highly doubt that honestly. I figure it boils down to a few different things, number one is that some sort of tragic accident occurred right at that very spot and some morning family member what’s to leave a forever reminder of that horrible event for the world to see. See here is my problem with that. I mean if it was because this family member is in morning and wants to have this place of remembrance… Why don‘t you ever see the freaking people coming back to morn at the spot. Ok yes, sometimes you see some random silk flower and a laminated picture or two. But unless the tragic event occurred in the last two months, those silk flowers are so faded and dirty that they just look like brown mud covered ugly bushes. The pictures that had been left are starting to incinerate and words are getting all wind blown with the passing traffic to the point where you can no longer comprehend them. So I find it hard to believe that someone would pick placing this as there collective spot of morning when I bet there are a million cemeteries around with well tended too gardens and even fresh kept flowers galore. And probably much more easy to access when you do feel the urge to remember this persons life, because it wont require a drive to the middle of nowhere and stand along the side of a busy highway in morning.
So I think that people place the crosses less as a place to morn a loss, and more as a reminder to those of us who drive by and see the little cross as we pass. Reminding us that roads are dangerous and that you might die so pay attention and whatnot. And I‘ll admit that when I catch one of these little crosses covered with all the collective brown wind blown junk attached to it, I do take that extra few seconds to see if I can figure out what happened to that person. But honestly it’s like such a contradiction that this is what the purpose of them is. I mean it’s really just something that actually catches your eye and distracts you just a slight amount form concentrating on driving, and possibly causing just enough lack of attention to the road around you therefore causing you to get in an accident yourself. And heck maybe that accident will cause another death of another person or yourself, therefore allowing another lame roadside cross to get put up and perpetuating the whole turn of events all over again. Ok so maybe that’s being kind of over dramatic but part of me kind of thinks that way. I mean it does just cause you to draw attention away from the road and makes you try to see if you can read any of the left over trinkets that have remained blowing around in the wind still attached. What if at that same moment someone brakes really fast in front of you? See it could happen.
I guess I do understand that need to feel like you are doing something after someone close to you dies. And I also understand that whole feeling that maybe leaving a little trinket will make some sort of difference to the world, because in times like that you feel so completely hopeless that you try to find anything to be your cause. So I guess I can forgive the crosses to some extent. I just wish that these same people who put them up would take responsibility for taking them down. Who knows maybe it would be just as healing to get some closure removing it from the tragic scene of the accident. Getting to relive in all those trinket’s meaning and beginning to move forward. Anyways I hope this doesn’t offend anyone and I have no clue what the right or wrong thing to do is in a horrid situation like loosing someone in an accident along the said of the road. But like I said these last few days I spend driving a lot and kept seeing them all over the place and it started to be the thing I couldn’t get out of my head.
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