{"id":12434,"date":"2026-05-05T21:59:37","date_gmt":"2026-05-05T21:59:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lifeiswhathappens.ca\/?p=12434"},"modified":"2026-05-06T01:57:28","modified_gmt":"2026-05-06T01:57:28","slug":"as-they-lay-dying","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lifeiswhathappens.ca\/?p=12434","title":{"rendered":"As They Lay Dying"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Apologies for the blur<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

I lived through both tragic references in David Wojahn’s poem and I have been to the Madame Tussaud’s gallery in Niagara Falls. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

I remember exactly where I was when the news flashed at the bottom of the TV screen reporting that John Lennon had been shot and I remember watching the news reels of the student protests at Kent State University and seeing the national guards with their rifles aimed at those students.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I\u2019m not fond of Madame Tussaud’s gaudy tourist attractions, but I can understand their fascination – haunting wax statues so lifelike they could almost breathe. I do admire photographers, though, and their ability to capture the moment, however tragic it may be.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Tragic <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

I\u2019m posting this today because the horrific photo of the Kent State \u201cmassacre\u201d appeared on my FB feed a few minutes ago and just the other day I read the poem above. The cosmos is speaking.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Madame Tussaud\u2019s displays are Art of a sort. John Lennon was an artist. The picture of the Kent State tragedy is considered a classic in photographic Art. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

What are the messages here? Are we raising death to an Art form? I don\u2019t think so. I think we have to be reminded, however often and in whatever way, that life is itself a sacred form of Art.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I lived through both tragic references in David Wojahn’s poem and I have been to the Madame Tussaud’s gallery in Niagara Falls. I remember exactly where I was when the news flashed at the bottom of the TV screen reporting that John Lennon had been shot and I remember watching the news reels of the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":12438,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-12434","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-blog"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeiswhathappens.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12434","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeiswhathappens.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeiswhathappens.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeiswhathappens.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeiswhathappens.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=12434"}],"version-history":[{"count":12,"href":"https:\/\/lifeiswhathappens.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12434\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12455,"href":"https:\/\/lifeiswhathappens.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12434\/revisions\/12455"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeiswhathappens.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/12438"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeiswhathappens.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=12434"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeiswhathappens.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=12434"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeiswhathappens.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=12434"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}