I was driving down Shepherd the other day, when I saw a
great black cube, built of plywood, and stenciled with Before I die…
Next to the box was a bucket of chalk, so passersby could
add their own statements.
Most of the statements were personal goals:
Some were pipe dreams:
And some people had been reading Hunter S Thompson:
I originally thought the cube was someone’s attempt at participatory
art but in fact, it was a clever way of introducing a new business to the area:
a funeral parlor.
It must be difficult to advertise funereal services. Everyone
will need them someday, but the solemnity involved means you can’t run a two for
one sale. Can you imagine someone like Mattress Mack yelling “SOLID OAK
coffins & No backorder slips!” on television at two o’clock in the morning? It just wouldn't work.
Anyway, back to the thought-provoking box. What do I want to
do before I die? And what can I do to make it happen?
5 things I want to do
before I die
- Travel
to
- Speak a second language, fluently
- Create something of lasting value
- Have a closet where absolutely everything in it fits
- Make a positive impact on the world
I read this on your blog and thought it was truly thought provoking--and a clever ad campaign. And then, just this past weekend, I was on the Johns Hopkins campus and saw it there in the student commons. Clearly, it wasn't serving any sort of advertising purposes. Odd?
ReplyDeleteMaybe somebody thought it was a good idea and ran with it? Or it could just be a case of clever location - being in the parking lot of the funeral home seems to indicate they are related, but not necessarily; that was an assumption on my part.
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