The Lemon Fool

What the hell is going on with the plethora of roadside tributes that seem to around every corner. We passed three today and in two cases the deaths were caused by alcohol, so basically their own fault, and the other chap had a heart attack and was dead before the car crashed. Bunches and bunches of dead and dying flowers plus new ones tastefully wrapped in luminous paper. The dead flowers are never removed and the heap of dead rubbish just keeps growing. There are laws against dropping litter and fly tipping and I just wish these displays were treated in the same way.
Rant over.

R6

I think it's a search for higher metaphysical meaning amidst the spiritual desert that our modern life has become. Godlessness, instant gratification and loud materialism have robbed us of that inner sense of continuity that once characterised our relationships with those who have passed away.

Just as the Japanese set up household shrines to their departed ancestors, so we are drawn back toward the quiet creation of what psychologists call transitional objects. These very personal monuments can help us to process the immensity of what the funeral service calls the mystery of death. And, perhaps, just perhaps, to gain some understanding of our fragile relationship with eternity.

On the other hand, it's what Gazza would have wanted. He was planning to graffiti that bit of concrete anyway.

BJ

It's social media, and being publicly seen as caring. What happened at Princess Di's funeral was considered as an act of national mass hysteria.
Having domestic shrines in Asia is much more aligned with their historical reverence for their own ancestors IME.

DiamondEcho wrote:Having domestic shrines in Asia is much more aligned with their historical reverence for their own ancestors IME.

Indeed. I must remember to hit the irony button a bit harder in future.

I think Diana's send-off was a few years ahead of social media - jeepers, 20 years this August! But I get your point. Communities coming together for a good national cathartic wail that exorcises every disappointment they've ever had since they were refused permission for a puppy dog at the age of three. Evita Peron got much the same treatment in her day. What bothers me is that so did Jade Goody.

BJ

What bothers me is that so did Jade Goody.

Yes, this social media thingy can get quite silly. I work in Italy and I remember people asking me about this person, since she'd 'gone viral' if that's the word.

God rest her soul, maybe she was a great person, but I had to admit to everyone at the time that I didn't have the slightest idea who she was. So embarrassing! To this day, there are at least 5 italians who believe she was one of the Spice girls.


Steve

OT. Quite locally there is a shrine with a text "Loving Son", made of a circle of stones, a photo, birth year same as mine, someone tends to it and updates greeting cards etc. It is next to a little used footpath, has been there since 2001. Perhaps the lad died on that particular footpath. I always pause to have a look and wonder what the story is, internet has provided no clues. This is more of a private shrine.

JMN2 wrote:OT. Quite locally there is a shrine with a text "Loving Son", made of a circle of stones, a photo, birth year same as mine, someone tends to it and updates greeting cards etc. It is next to a little used footpath, has been there since 2001. Perhaps the lad died on that particular footpath. I always pause to have a look and wonder what the story is, internet has provided no clues. This is more of a private shrine.

Very private. Sounds like a suicide. Is that a slight chill in the air?

BJ

bungeejumper wrote:

JMN2 wrote:OT. Quite locally there is a shrine with a text "Loving Son", made of a circle of stones, a photo, birth year same as mine, someone tends to it and updates greeting cards etc. It is next to a little used footpath, has been there since 2001. Perhaps the lad died on that particular footpath. I always pause to have a look and wonder what the story is, internet has provided no clues. This is more of a private shrine.

Very private. Sounds like a suicide. Is that a slight chill in the air?

BJ

I run and ramble a lot, there's a steep and long hill there which is really a tough bit of trail running so my first thought has always been a heart attack because that's what I feel like when I make that top.

As a bitter blue.
I'd like to make a shrine to Liverpool's title hopes tee hee

bungeejumper wrote:I think Diana's send-off was a few years ahead of social media - jeepers, 20 years this August! But I get your point. Communities coming together for a good national cathartic wail that exorcises every disappointment they've ever had since they were refused permission for a puppy dog at the age of three. Evita Peron got much the same treatment in her day. What bothers me is that so did Jade Goody. BJ

Wow how time flies. Back then I lived in Bayswater and would go and walk for exercise around Hyde Park a few times a week. I remember the run-up to her funeral. The vast crowds on the lawns in front of Kensington Palace, the sea of flowers, balloons, teddy-bears etc stacked in front of the railings [to get an idea Google/image-search on 'kensington palace Diana flowers tribute']. I don't imagine I'll witness anything like that ever again, it was like a large section of society was gripped in collective grief and had chartered coaches to cross the country to all come together to get it out of their system. Like they had to form some personal connection between themselves and her.
It was stranger still later with on-lookers throwing flowers at her funeral cortege, klassy eh? I also recall there being a set of condolence books and reports of people being taken away by ambulance having claimed to have had apparitions of Diana. It seemed like a form of collective hysteria to me.

Rhyd6 wrote:What the hell is going on with the plethora of roadside tributes that seem to around every corner.

I've often wondered that, too.

Personally I'd rather remember my loved ones in places where they were happy, rather than where they were cut short.

My brother was killed by a drunk-driver. I've never thought a bunch of flowers by the roadside was a fitting tribute to my big bro.

And neither do I necessarily get the idea that having flowers by the roadside will make people aware of the dangers etc.; to me it's another distraction for gawkers to focus on instead of the road ahead.

But that's grief for you, I guess. It affects people in different ways.

It's not just roadside tributes, even football matches/fans have got in on the mawkish tributes. Barely a match goes by without some tribute to a deceased fan .

'He was 50 years old so there will be 1 minute of clapping on the 50th minute of the game' or

'He got knocked down by a No.36 bus so clap on the 36th minute'.

It drives me mad. What is the point of it? How many fans actually knew the deceased?

This tendency for roadside tributes is very much practised by the lower classes, the great unwashed, same people who complain that they can't make the ends meet, benefits are too stingy, then you see a documentary on tv - they are overweight if not obese and the children eat pizza and chips after school, the mother is too busy drinking and smoking to cook a decent supper although they often call it tea. One can be dirt poor and have dignity, eat proper healthy food, have manners --- but no! Let's have a roadside tribute and shear fake tears!

the great unwashed..... they are overweight if not obese and the children eat pizza and chips after school, the mother is too busy drinking and smoking to cook a decent supper although they often call it tea.

Ahem, all of those things also tend to be markers for low status, poor education, low social mobility and a weekly income that's paid in cash (thus obviating any inclination or ability to forward-plan the household budget). And a general sense that there's not much prospect in life, so you might as well fill up with McDonalds dopamines that will dull the pain for a few more hours. I once used to teach their kids on the outskirts of the Longbridge car plant.

Result: overweight, alcoholic, sofaholic people who make an art of passing the time. What they really need is a good middle-class upbringing, a grammar school education, some sensible parents and probably a better set of genes, and society's problems will evaporate. Easy.

BJ

Well, it's a slippery slope. One day one throws a sweet-wrapper on the street, next day benefit fraud and fly-tipping tributes on the ruddy roadside.

Am I the only one to be extremely disappointed to find that this thread is neither about the Tenacious D song, nor the extremely fine beverage produced by The St Austell Brewery in Cornwall?

I always find it difficult to order the latter without quoting the former at poor buxom behind the bar "It's not the best beer in the world.."

She's probably still wondering why I keep ordering it.

JMN2 wrote:3. these scumbags have brought 101 bouquets so far, must've been expensive, crime has paid off somewhat for those people

Who says they bought them?


Slarti

bungeejumper wrote: I think Diana's send-off was a few years ahead of social media - jeepers, 20 years this August! But I get your point. Communities coming together for a good national cathartic wail that exorcises every disappointment they've ever had since they were refused permission for a puppy dog at the age of three. Evita Peron got much the same treatment in her day. What bothers me is that so did Jade Goody.

Just Googled Jane Goody. I had never heard of her and I doubt that I was missing much. OTOH to die of cancer at the age of 28 was not good.

Dod