Nothing looks like a dead body under a tarp more than a dead body under a tarp
I was at a spritiually-based convention in Minneapolis in 2000, having the time of my life. It was Sunday, the last day of the convention. Revived and happy, all 45,000 said the final prayer and headed home.

On the bus back to where I parked my car, the police diverted all of the highway traffic onto the frontage road. After about a mile, I could see a bridge over the main highway with two police cars on it, lights flashing, and several more police cars on the highway, parked crossways across the lanes.

When we got to where we could see the other side of the bridge, there were more police cars, an ambulance and an 18-wheeler pulled over on the side of the road.

In the middle of the road back by the bridge, was a yellow tarp. Nothing looks like a body under a tarp than a body under a tarp.

Poor sod had jumped into traffic from the bridge above, probably waiting for a speeding 18-wheeler to do the job right.

That driver got to go home and tell his kids how he killed someone, but he wasn't in trouble. He probably hears the *thump* in his sleep, though. Dozens of other drivers got to go home and tell people how they saw someone die. That one jumper forever changed dozens of total strangers' lives, including mine.

But, after all that, and having just come from a massively attended spiritual convention where I felt renewed and in love with life, part of me, deep down, was just a little envious of the jumper. He gets to be done. No more struggles.

My darker side scares me sometimes.
( setimret likes his metaphors mixed, not stirred, Thu 28 Feb 2008, 21:33, Reply)