Today is Dec 26, the 1 year anniversary of the tsunami.
Damn it, who is that annoying guy who is ruining the photo? And what the hell is he doing in a well!@%$@??
Whilst for the annoying guy the tsunami ruins are a comedy stage, for others the site of the crooked house would make a quiet, reflective monument to the tsunami, the damage, the lives lost, the lives not lost but forever interrupted.
The crooked house is a more poignant monument than any official monument could be, given that an official monument’s public status means crowds and crowds mean no personal space to reflect.
But what happens when the last tsunami damaged house is repaired? When the ruins no longer remain? The only spaces left will be the empty space in people’s minds and hearts. That’s the hardest space to mend, and it seems to this observer that what one may need is a physical space to reflect the damage one feels inside.
So leave the ruins alone. Let them be spaces people can use for themselves, in whatever way they need, to express whatever they want, be it reflecting the grief of the past, or like the annoying guy, to celebrate being alive and the joy the future may hold.
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