Tuesday, June 05, 2007

Memento mori


Everyone wants to be remembered. Chufu built his pyramid in Giza and Emperor Qin has his mausoleum surrounded by countless clay soldiers. Bonaparte has his tomb at Les Invalides and most people get at least a memorial marker somewhere, but for those who see nothing new under the sun, a trip to the American South might be a surprise.

At first I thought it was just one of the weird things rednecks do, and then I saw another and another. Billy Bob wants more than marble in the graveyard, he wants something on wheels; something big. Maybe I've just lived too long or maybe one of those alternate universes physicists are talking about is leaking through to this one, but I'm seeing memorial trucks all over these days with "in loving memory of" decals on the massive rear windows.

I wouldn't want any part of such chicken-fried vulgarity for my own part. Of course should someone wish ever so tastefully to inscribe my name on a shiny yellow C6-R and run it at the 24 Heures du Mans, or perhaps on the varnished teak transom of a 300' megayacht, I wouldn't object. Pyramids are passe' don't you know.

3 comments:

d.K. said...

This is a first for me - though I'm quite sure I'll spot two of them tomorrow.

They can emblazon my name on the equivalent of the Space Shuttle, otherwise, not so much.

Capt. Fogg said...

I wouldn't mind that either, but I'd sort of prefer to be around to see it.

RR said...

Fascinating.

Its likely that most of these remembrances are on "christian trucks"... Why are they so worried about "remembering" if they are gonna see these people again after they die?

Maybe they don't believe their own rhetoric.