A Cenotaph

This is a typical section of recently paved roadway at Mile Marker 38, on the Overseas Highway. What makes this spot stand out are the wreaths:Familiarity breeds indifference and we have all seen the roadside markers, as we blow on by, where some poor unfortunate met their Maker. I was enjoying my day enough that I figured it was time I should stop and take notice for a change.
I vaguely recall this wreck, an incident that must have profoundly altered quite a few people's lives, as several lost theirs here. My overriding memory was relief that I wasn't on this section of road that day because the investigation closed the highway for a while. Which, as one looks at the crash marks, reveals itself as a rather shallow thought.What prompted such a catastrophe, one has to ask, and there are no answers on the roadway to the untrained eye. Perhaps a moment's inattention, a mechanical failure, an animal in the road, a simple human mistake. Whatever it was I seem to recall three youngsters died and one other was flown out for treatment in Miami. I seem to remember it involved two cars colliding, which seems inconceivable on this stretch of road. Perhaps it was a failed attempt to pass that brought them together?

And there, in the blink of an eye everything changed. I remember going down on my Bonneville last June 1st and as the motorcycle leapt from under me and flopped to the left I had time to think about the aggravation of the damage I was going to cause to my machine. I got bumped and scratched, but completed my commute that morning thanks to a couple of passing men who lifted my motorcycle back on it's wheels for me. I suffered the bumps and bruises for a few weeks, I paid a thousand bucks to get my pretty motorcycle back to where it was before the wreck, worn but not worn out, and that was that. These folks weren't so lucky:It is an inexplicable fate that plucks these people from Life's path and leaves the rest of us to soldier on.It is very likely they took life for granted, as do we who are still here, enjoying the day, but not necessarily expecting the end. Certainly in our culture, one that has the greatest difficulty acknowledging any of Life's little truths, the inescapable fact of Death isn't something we are encouraged to ponder.Clearly they left some people behind who weren't ready to see them go.There is that constant search for confirmation of immortality after our lives here are finished. It's existence can never be proved so it is always devoutly hoped for and firmly believed in. It is said, more to the point, that we live on in the memories of those left behind, a statement it's hard to argue with when you see these tributes:I feel rather guilty looking at their pictures and flowers. I'm turning 52 in a few days and I've made more than my share of rider errors in my life and here I am anyway. These young'uns got to make one choice that one day- they chose to take a drive- and ended up here.My mother died when I was a teenager and I think I can accurately say that not a day goes by that I don't think about my mortality. I doubt there is anything more after death than the same great blankness we came from, before we were born, but whether my idle speculation is right or wrong it can't hurt to try to remember to redouble our efforts to live each day as though it were our last- for one day we are sure to be right.