I really shouldn't be taking the time to write anything that isn't specifically job related (and even reflecting on the semester is a luxury), but I don't want to lose this.

When I was a teenager or 20-something, I am not sure I recognized the birth of a fad or evolution of cultural practice -- or the more permanent changes in ritual.

For instance, to use something from the 1970s, streaking. In the 1980s, piercings and tatooes. In the 1990s, reality programs and the emergence of roadside and sidewalk shrines to mark the site of tragedy.

Now I see "flash mob" wedding proposals are all the rage. What's up with that? Will this be a short-lived fad (like streaking), longer term than a fad, but likely to die out eventually (like body art and reality TV) or a shift in ritual (like shrines)?

I've carefully considered this subject, and I don't have a problem with memorials, whether roadside or ghost bikes. I find them fascinating, in fact. It is a (relatively) recent phenomenon. A new kind of ritual. Because of the increasing popularity of cremation, meaning that their often is no cemetery plot? Because the spot where someone dies as a result of the bloodbath we call transportation is special somehow? I don't know the answer, but it is fun to speculate.

However, I have a big problem with the statement in this article, attributed to "the activists."

Sometimes people express irritation the ghost bikes are never removed.
The activists say the same question is never asked of other roadside memorials to crash victims.
"Along the highway, you see these crosses," one said. "There are no time limits on those. Why should there be one on a bicyclist?"

Why isn't the speaker clearly identified? Why didn't the writer of this story investigate whether that claim was true?

I call BS. People complain all the time about roadside memorials to crash victims. Some people don't like them because they consider them a distraction, or a road hazard. Some say they are little more than litter and don't belong on public property - or private property that is not the memorial creator's. Others, in my opinion, are in death denial, and don't like the reminder. I always think, when people complain about memorials -- they are tacky, etc. -- why can't people be more compassionate and less judgmental when someone is grieving? I am not suggesting grief is an excuse for all sorts of bad behavior but if the display isn't harming anyone then be kind.

But I suspect this unsupportable assertion was slipped into the story without attribution because of the word "crosses." The speaker (or article writer, as far as I'm concerned, being unsourced, it may as well be made up) is implying people are more tolerant of a traditional religious symbol than they are of a new age one.

That's a bunch of crap. It's a false equivalence anyway. Roadside memorials are almost never as permanent as the ghost bikes; in fact, they are often removed after a period of time.

I've been interested in the subject of death since I was a teenager, searching for meaning. At that time, I read all sorts of books on the topic and discussed it with "elders," and took a few anthro-type courses about death in college. I've never been creeped out, as some are, by cemeteries, places and spaces where people die, funerals, the dying, etc. I am trustee for a cemetery, and also live near one. So the phenomenon of shrines interests me.

I didn't feel like repeating this in a comment, but I wrote about roadside memorials here. When I was considering updated thoughts on this issue, what came to mind is a shrine that is on Brookview Road. A 16 year old boy who was riding a bicycle was hit by a drunk driver who left the scene. There was an elaborate memorial near a stone wall at the accident site. It stayed there for years, growing less elaborate over time, but still refreshed every so often. There is now just one of those perpetual flames on the spot.

The house is beautiful, as is the wall, and I guess the people who live there don't mind the memorial, or perhaps participate in maintaining it, I don't know. The boy's (who would now be a young man) family lives only a few houses away. I discovered I wrote about this already, when it happened, here.

This isn't about roadside memorials for car crash victims, but I wrote on the subject of shrines in cemeteries here (as well as other things! The shrine part is the third paragraph).

In Albany there is a bicycle, brightly painted and adorned with flowers and ribbons, chained to a light pole on Western Avenue. It marks the intersection where a woman was hit and killed a few years ago.

The idea of shrines is an interesting cultural phenomenon. Frankly, I don't have a problem with it, although I doubt it is something I would do. If it is private property, I think it should be between the homeowner and the bereaved. Kind people of good sense should not have a problem working it out, how long it stays, etc. I think the owners of the house with the stone wall are a wonderful example.

If it is public property, if it causes problems with traffic visability or danger to memorial visitors, then I think the time could be limited, perhaps an alternate location suggested if the time has to be (too) short. If it is in a place where it doesn't matter, who cares? Why can't we be compassinate, and not judgmental? For instance, the bike is not in a place where it causes problems, why increase the pain to her loved ones?

Besides comforting people who are grieving, I do think the memorials may serve as a reminder to passersby that driving can be dangerous, and life is fleeting, so wake up! Not a bad thing, IMO.

It's too bad that many of the links in those old posts don't work. That's a hassle with the web.

This is a heartbreaking story. There still is a well-maintained shrine near the stone wall in front of the farmhouse. I can't imagine what kind of a person would do such a thing, but I think such people are the reason I don't drive.

Last night on the news, the boy's mother was interviewed, and she was talking about "Christopher's Law." Now, I am not really a proponent of the recent trend toward naming laws after victims, but I do think the law should be changed in this case. She said that there is less penalty for leaving the scene of an accident, and being caught later, than for staying there, if the driver is drunk. I think that may be one unintended consequence of the focus on strictly enforcing DWI laws. No way should this creep get away with less punishment than if he had been arrested at the scene. Yeah, it would have been his second DWI, but hit and run under the influence or not should be even worse than that! Maybe the boy would not have died if the driver got help for him right away.

I think I first noticed "shrines" in early 1992, when Bob, my father and I took a car trip to Florida. I spotted them along highways in the South, on the way down. During the past decade, they seem to be everywhere, a floral reminder of the bloodbath that is our favored way of travel. Whenever someone dies in a car crash, a shrine immediately appears. Some, often in the most high traffic areas, quickly disappear; others are there for years afterwards, either becoming forgotten, tattered and forlorn, or they are regularly visited, with new bouquets placed nearby and sometimes even more permanent displays erected.

I wonder at this phenomenon. Is it because increasing numbers of people are cremated, (that is my guess, it has no factual basis) and so do not get interred in cemeteries, and there is no permanent place for mourning? Does the spot where death happened hold some special power? Or is it something about the special horror of car accidents, related in some way to "rubber-necking"?

For famous people, shrines appear at places besides the death site, and even when the death is not accidental. I wrote a bit, sort of on this subject, here.

Bob and I developed a business idea! (Since this site gets little traffic there is no fear it will be stolen...and we'll never do it anyway). Some florists and cemeteries offer services, delivering flowers or a plant to the grave of your beloved, on occasions such as Mother's Day or Memorial Day, when you can't visit yourself. So how about applying the same idea to the many neglected shrines along the roads? Roadside Rememberences. Let us lovingly maintain your dear one's shrine. Special on four times per year package: Easter, Memorial Day, Christmas, Birthday. Prayers extra.