I was cruising other folks' blogs last night, came across a lovely one in which the writer had posted photos from a family trip to an amazing monastery in Turkey. I just want to toss out this admonition: if you're ever at this or ANY centuries-old site, or really ANYWHERE, now that I think about it, and you feel yourself being overtaken by the urge to carve (or spray paint, or otherwise indelibly mark) your idiot initials, name, or anything else on the walls, frescoes, floor, ceiling, or anywhere else, STOP.
Stop, and look around. Be quick, you've got precious little time to work with there! Look around, find the biggest, sharpest object you can find!
Now, cut off your damned hand. Please.
If there are no sharp objects available (and you lacked the foresight to bring your own), crushing your hand will do. Find a large rock (or just ask a friend to stomp it a dozen or so times) and smash that bastard until it's hamburger (hand-burger?). Please refrain from doing this on delicate tile work, carpets, etc.
Thank you.
Stop, and look around. Be quick, you've got precious little time to work with there! Look around, find the biggest, sharpest object you can find!
Now, cut off your damned hand. Please.
If there are no sharp objects available (and you lacked the foresight to bring your own), crushing your hand will do. Find a large rock (or just ask a friend to stomp it a dozen or so times) and smash that bastard until it's hamburger (hand-burger?). Please refrain from doing this on delicate tile work, carpets, etc.
Thank you.
This should be on signs in all of the historic places in the world. Vandalism is stealing those things from the rest of us. I remember how sad I was that the petroglyphs in Little Wild Horse canyon were riddled with bullet holes. I've seen a few other petroglyph sites and they weren't damaged, but this one had a depiction of a shaman with "devil" horns, and that might have been why some bonehead shot at it, or it could be just that it's very accessible, you can see it from your car. Either way, I wish the vandal had smashed his own hand instead.
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