Favor and honor sometimes fall more fitly on those who do not desire them. --Titus LiviusStatues of great people always appear to me to be blind. True representation of the image of death of the person, their fleet departure of the soul from the physical body it once inhabited. The eyes of alabaster and marble and bronze are unable to capture the emotion of sight and vision of men. Images that transpose to thought, wisdom, daring deeds and appreciation of beauty. Empty but for their past.
But I am always trapped into staring...captured in the concrete moment of monuments.
So, though the statues never could see, only their creators vision is seen, we see them and remember the deeds and the gifts that the representations hold before us. We carve entire mountains into the lions of our country, Mt. Rushmore, the Crazy Horse monument as well as the carvings of confederate heroes on Stone Mountain in Georgia. Town squares are built around great men and women crying out from stone and metal to remember them. We strike out and topple and deface them when the glory they represented fades. Deny by destroying the creations of our past.
Who are these people of the monuments. I do believe that there are people out there that do set out for great glory and that is their goal and where all their passions run. I do not want monuments to that type of glorious self indulgent purpose. I have more belief that happenstance and duty to a purpose or cause is what ultimately bestows greatness. And should be immortalized.
There will be always statues...but to me, the ones that are obscure, of people whose deeds were great but destiny delivered them to their glory, are the statues that speak the loudest. They represent those moments of surprise, of honorable conduct.The Vietnam memorial in San Antonio is an example of one of the most poignant capturing of honor that I have ever born witness to. I remember the total loss of words that deadened my being.
Titus Livius (59 BC -AD17) Was a roman historian who wrote about Rome and the Roman people.
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5 comments:
When my sisters (your aunts) and I visited Washington D.C. a few years ago we have never forgot the memorials that are there. The Korean one that you are able to walk thru and experience how the soldiers felt in the rice paddys,especially at night,it is awsome. also the iwo jima statue,it is huge and so life like,the faces etched so perfect.Statues with faces tell a story showing fear at the same time leaving you with a life long memory of the great people that passed before us.Washington D.C. is more than politics it is a great place to visit and bring home its greatness. Mom
I still have a piece of granite, brought back to me by my Mom and Dad that was a chip from the Crazy Horse Monument in South Dakota. So what I really have is a physical reminder to go with the visual memories of my parents that were taken away from a mountain to create a memorial. A concrete memory.
This is the inscription on the monument I spoke of in San Antonio:
"Death at My Door":
Day is over and danger hastens
Young Marines at their battle stations
Instruments of war outline the sky
Means of death are standing by
Can it be true on this high hill
Forces will clash only to kill?
Silence fills the near moonless night
Restless thoughts of a bloody fight
Endless memories for those awake
Meaningful discussions experience would make
Though silent world in which we live
Permit only God's comfort to give
Somewhere through the darkness creeping
A date with death is in the keeping
Alone I sit and question why
Life itself to be born to merely die?
David Rogers
1st Lt USMC
April 30, 1967
Hill 881 South Republic of Vietnam
Hi Mitch, I have to agree with your mom, I think the Korean war memorial is the most powerful memorial I have ever seen. I think it's power stems from the fact you are almost forced to walk among the men as they climb the rice paddies. It's too bad this memorial is kind of off the beaten path, so to say and many people probably miss it. Good blog!
Visiting Washington is a goal and the monuments are a destination that I will visit with reverence.
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