Memorials -- as varied as our lives

Hi neighbors.

This Monday is Memorial Day. Many of us will take small flags and flowers to cemeteries to honor our deceased loved ones.

Memorials are stone markers where our entire lives are sometimes reduced simply to birth and death dates. The majority of Americans live their lives and leave only a rock and a hastily written obituary to mark their time on earth. The lucky ones also leave children and grandchildren to carry on the family name and history.

Some people build grand stone markers to symbolize their own imagined stature in society and history. Most are forgotten like the shadows these monuments cast on sunny days.

But some build great stone monuments that are also their chiseled mark on history: built to survive long past its creator's death and anyone's memory of him.

One such place is called The House on the Rock and towers above the forest in Wisconsin. My family and I went there this last weekend on a four-day vacation.

Created by Alex Jordan, the cave like home was practically handmade. The man would carry cement and rocks on his back up the treacherous cliff, face trip after trip.

His first room, "the Winter Room," contained a cozy fireplace. One thing I noticed was a decided lack of lighting.

There were openings in the walls and ceilings with hand-carved wooden Japanese sliding shutters. The entire place is packed with expensive collectibles, including Tiffany lamps. A very wealthy man, Alex Jordan spent a lifetime flying around the world collecting whatever things caught his eye. He continued adding rooms onto his house to display his collections.

One room contains dozens of large doll houses. Complete miniature circuses are on display in another room.

The world's largest carousel fills a room bigger than my entire house! There are thousands of lights on it and hundreds of animals to ride on.

Another collection was music machines. These contain male and female animated machines that actually play music. Some music machines are simply the instruments rigged up to air hoses that play complete songs. All have bright painted areas and many movable parts. A real show in every room!

Dubbed "the Architect of his own dream" Alex Jordan built a remarkable memorial for his life: a memorial that people walk through and admire every day of the year.

Of course there are national memorials in every country. These are usually built to remember some historic event or battle. Often they are dedicated to the men and women who died in those events or battles.

If the entire planet had to produce a memorial to celebrate the survival of the entire human species, I wonder what it would look like and where they would build it.

Not all memorials are stone buildings or mammoth rocks with carvings on them. Some people are remembered by what they have done throughout their lives. Simple tombstones mark their resting places; but great events or ideas are their real tributes.

What about obituaries? Should they be considered memorials? Most are less than 500 words and written by someone who never even knew the person in their childhood.

Shouldn't people write their own obituaries? After all, who knows you better than you?

Most of us don't do it, thinking it would appear vain. We wonder if people would think us too full of ourselves and too impressed with our own importance. Well, I'm pretty important to me. But, when it comes to whittling my life down to 500 words, barely a sixth grade Friday night's homework assignment, I find I have too much or too little to say.

My father always said we all are born, we live, we work, we love and we die. That pretty much sums it up. But every life should be at least as interesting as an afternoon soap opera.

If you have an extra hour this weekend, sit down and type up your own biography. Now cut that down to 500 words and you've got an obituary. Good luck!