Details, Details, Details...

During the week, we talked a lot about memorials, and how they were effective in representing the lost. Throughout this discussion, what fascinated me was how detailed memorials are, and how every aspect of them, from location to materials used, is purposefully chosen. For instance, In Postcards from the Trenches, even the decision to have live soldiers act like statues, instead of having actual statues, was symbolic because “the guards must mimic the stony inaccessibility of the dead but not permanently...they must fluctuate, ceremonially, between life and death” (Booth 34). (I think this was the point where the intricacy and details of memorials really hit me.) To put it in one sentence: memorials are DEEP. 


This really made me think - are our lives like that too? Isn't everything like that too? Is every detail of our lives, every occurrence, for a reason, to complete the complicated puzzle of life? Whenever something bad happens in our life, we are frustrated and wonder - why? Why me? Why now? And then, eventually - be it years later - we understand that it was for a reason, that had it not occurred then xyz could not have happened either. 
At the same time, I wonder, how would I know if a certain negative event has helped me in some way? Is there really a way to know? For example, if my car refused to start one morning, and I was late to school. What if this was because, had it started then, I would have been right in the middle of the path of a drunk driver or an out-of-control truck? But I would never know this. All I would know is that I got late to school, and I would be upset. I would never know how close I was to a near-death experience.

It takes a special type of person to understand every little symbol in a memorial and what it represents. In the same way, it takes a special type of person to understand that sometimes, things are for the better.

Comments

  1. UnknownSeptember 17, 2017 at 6:33 PM

    This is really interesting! It kind of reminds me of the concept of fate and destiny and how everything can happen for a reason you never know of. I also like the imagery you use in this blog, like the dominoes.

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