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Memorials / Plaques 10-Nov-2006 At 1:24:00 PM ithomas

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People get comfort from being in the place where friends and relatives have died: so long as it's not a jail cell, a back alley or a boarding house. Battle fields are full of memorials. Places of death such as the Kokoda Track, Tobruk, Poziers, Gallipoli are almost places of worship; often unfortunately to people who don't truly understand what happened there. Not many memorials to Koori deaths though. Windshuttle tried to stop that. The connections between death and place are understandable.

People love to spread ashes in favourite places, but I turned off that idea after the ashes of an aquaintence blew up my nose at a scattering ceremony. I didn't really like him but had family obligations. You know. Anyway, I finally snotted him. I like to wander city streets and read plaques about dead people. Nothing wrong with that. I also like good explanatory boards in places I visit. Sometimes though, the information is wrong and visual pollution is the result. I don't really like plaques on cliffs and in my estimation no one who ever died climbing, was doing what they loved. Death in climbing is usually an accident or a mistake. No love there, just searing regret and bowel tearing fear. No place for a memorial really. The pines were planted I think by Noddy's Grandfather. When they die that historical link will be gone. Unless perhaps there are re-plantings (of indigenous trees). The sigh of wind in the pines could easily be replicated by wind through groves of she-oaks. The Ballarat Memorial Drive is a living memorial. There is a good idea in that somewhere. Perhaps we could chop the plaques and replace them with trees? No names. Just trees.