Altars, altars everywhere

By Barbara O'Neal 

Recently, I dragged Christopher Robin to a small art gallery in Manitou Springs, where they were having a show of altars. I admired them, one after another, puzzling out their messages. Some were crude and rough, some quite elaborate. CR said, “This is just what you do.”

As will so often happen, the obviousness of a thing slapped me in the head. Yes.  Of course I do.  I make altars out of everything.  Altoids boxes are excellent. Cigar boxes. Niches in desks and corners, naturally.   

Altars in all forms fascinate me, from descansos erected on the side of the road to honor the dead killed in car accidents, Buddhas covered with dollar bills at my local nail salon,  the altars piled high with crutches and requests scribbled on a photograph:  “Save Ricardo.”  A friend and I drove down to Chimayo New Mexico in December, to one of the only pilgrimage sites in North America.  There is a deep well with holy dirt that people collect to spread over the sick to heal them of their ills, and an altar to Virgin of Guadalupe, but my favorite is a little stall devoted to Santo Nino, who is a little boy saint dressed in a pilgrim’s cloak.  He is said to wander the area healing sick children, and wears out his shoes, so people bring him new ones, child shoes. His stall his littered with them, and it’s possible to hear the whispers of the prayers rustling the air. Who is more earnestly praying than a mother for a sick child, after all?

Honestly, Santo Nino and his shoes give me the creeps a bit. I really would not want to run into him on a dark night, his cape flapping, his cocky hat clapped down over his hair.  He reminds me a little too much of Chuckie.

One of my favorite kind of altars is descansos. Not everyone agrees with me, of course. Many states have fights over when to leave them up, when to take them down. The can be a little creepy, too, I guess, those constant reminders that you are not as safe as you think you are.  They are common in Colorado, and in New Mexico, it's against the law to dismantle them.  They become entrenched parts of the landscape, as this one has--

--so well-tended over time that they become a part of their world.  It’s a loving tribute, a determination to remember the dead as you would wish to be remembered. This one was decorated for Christmas.  

I make altars of all sorts all the time. They seem to sprout wherever I am. In my study, there are two. One is tucked into a niche of my desk.  It holds blue jay feathers  in pottery jars and egg-shaped rocks and a large Ganesha statue piled with American quarters and pound coins and Euros from a handful of different places. Last summer, I added a bottle of water taken from the Chalice Well in Glastonbury, where I waded in the waters to see if it would heal the torn meniscus in my knee. It was not healed but I did manage to walk 100km of the Camino de Santiago afterward, so maybe it was a miracle.  

The other altar is quite Catholic in aspect, with a Virgin of Guadalupe covered with rosary beads collected from my travels, and a very special one my teenage son brought back from Barcelona when he went with a class trip. It is he who provided me with the Virgin, whose halo used to light up with laser lights until I lost the cord.  Still, she has a pretty face andI like her very much.  She holds all the photos of people I give her without complaining.

 

Altars often make their way into my books, even inspire them.  For awhile I was fascinated with the tiny rock star altars that were showing up here and there in tourist shops.  When I found a dollar bill that said, “Tupac is alive!” I made one to honor that little bit of magic.

Making it helped me puzzle out the story of a lost young girl in A Piece of Heaven (which has maybe the most magic realism of any of my novels, aside from The Lost Recipe for Happiness). The altar and bill showed up in the narrative.  A double descanso in Chimayo helped inspire Lost Recipe.  One I saw along the Camino keeps showing up in my new book--crude and cold, but somehow I have not been able to dislodge it from my brain.  I would have spent the entire day there, reading the walls and prayers and petitions.  It plays an important role in the book. 

The day we saw the exhibit of altars, Christopher Robin and I wandered around Manitou afterwards. In an antique store, and he found an old teak jewelry box for $20 and gave it to me for a project.  It has Chinese mountains on it, and green Asian fabric inside. There are mirrors, very intriguing. Three days after he gave it to me, I found a passport that had been lost for more than three years, so that went inside.  I suspect it will be a travel altar of some kind, but that’s not clear yet.  We shall see. 

I have no idea where this fascination comes from, but maybe we don’t always have to know everything.   I just love them. That’s enough.

Have you ever seen an altar that spoke to you?  Do you have a passion for something a little offbeat? 

 

Comments

[Reine]

My favorite altar? One of my aunts likes to give me holy water from Lourdes. She usually finds a way to put some on me whenever I see her. Then she'll pull out a glow-in-the-dark Virgin, some sage she gathered in the canyon, and her Eagle feather. She's a walking altar, so of course she's my favorite.

[peach]

I have a passionate dislike for the roadside commemorations of automobile accidents which result in death. I've told my family that if I'm ever killed they'd better not put one up for me. My father and daughter are of like mind. My father says he'll come back to haunt us if we placed a marker at the spot of his death.

Why do people want to be reminded daily of the spot where a loved one died a hideous death?

[Deb]

Peach, I'm with you on not wanting to be commemorated with a roadside altar if I'm killed in an accident! I would definitely discourage people from building one in memory of anyone I love. My family and I are in agreement on this. I personally don't want my entire life to be summed up in the place and circumstances of my death. Each morning and afternoon I drive past one of those altars on the way to and from work - two siblings in my neighborhood were killed in an accident a couple of blocks from their home about a year ago. If I were their mom I think I'd have to find a different route to and from home - I'd want to remember my kids for their lives, not for the manner of their deaths. My heart breaks for her whenever I think about her.

Barbara, I don't actually have altars at home or at work but I DO have a handful of rocks I pulled out the Dead Sea in 1978 scattered around at home on the shelf where I keep my plants; I have another handful on the stand at work where I keep my computer monitor. I like to rearrange both sets of rocks from time to time. Handling them brings to mind my first trip out of the country and the excitement of experiencing different cultures.

Reine, I just finished reading the replies that were posted after I signed off the computer late yesterday afternoon. Congratulations on finally getting your power chair! It sounds like a traveling home! (I just hope you won't be tempted to speed - look out world: here comes Reine!)

[Karen in Ohio]

Barbara, I just read How to Bake a Perfect Life--the very first book I read on my new Nook. It was wonderful.

One year to the day after the Oklahoma City bombing a friend and I had booths at a trade show there. The grief there was still palpable; I swear you could see and feel it in every corner and atom of the city, especially in the downtown area, where the show was. Many of the people we saw were the very picture of the term walking wounded.

We had a car with us, so drove through the downtown area, near the government building that was bombed. So much still needed to be repaired; the windows of a church a block away were still so unstable that it was closed and cordoned off from the public. But the most haunting visual, one which we've all seen other places now but was new then, was the block-long altar of sorts made from the chain-link fencing around the bomb site. Flowers and other tributes, including stuffed toys, were stuck in every single hole in the fence, and piled out front of it.

We remarked on it at our hotel and were told that the city removed all that stuff every night, and more was placed there the next day. It was utterly heartrending.

[Harley]

I am with you, Barbara -- I'm fascinated by altars, love them, find myself making them around my house (in my living room, on my fireplace mantle, is my dear departed dog Jinn's dog bowl, her "good china" dog bowl, with a poem inside it). I've never talked about this. I figured it's my strange Slovak Catholic genes coming out in me.

I respect the roadside markers. They remind me to pay attention, and to acknowledge those that have crossed over. As for me, I don't much care what happens vis-a-vis markers, once I'm gone. If it comforts the ones left behind to commemorate me, it's okay by me. If it's weird for them, skip it!

[Nancy Pickard]

This is so interesting that you do this, Barbara, and you, too, Harley. I may have to steal you guys and make you characters in a book one day. I really love your gentle perspectives on altars. I have always disliked the roadside ones, partly for the plastic flowers, lol, but now I will see them a little differently, through your interested and sympathetic eyes. I can't promise to ever love the plastic flowers, though. :)

I love the Tupac one!

[Alan P.]

There are three roadside alters that speak to me. One my pizza buddies and I drive by almost every day. It is just south on Tree Court Industrial Dr. from Big Bend. It is on the hillside of a railroad viaduct. The road under the viaduct is a single lane.

View Larger Map

The link may or may not work to see it in Google Maps. No doubt someone was killed in a head on collision in that little tunnel. Something to think about as I drive very carefully through.

The other two are about 50' apart on MO-370 near St. Louis Mills. They are both for police officers. One killed the other. Patrolman Scott Armstrong was sent early one morning to apprehend a driver going the wrong way on the highway. The wrong way driver turned out to be another policeman. Officer Bastean's family thinks he is a hero, he was a policeman. Patrolman Armstrong's family and 99% of the rest of St. Louis think he was a drunk at 3:00am and a disgrace to his chosen profession. Bastean was drunk when he hit Patrolman Armstrong's patrol car. Periodically bastean's memorial gets cleaned off of the side of the road.

http://www.policespecial.com/inthelineofduty/2005/05-006-Armstrong/05-006-Armstrong.htm

[Nancy Pickard]

Oh, Alan, what a story. Sometimes irony really sucks.

[Edie]

I have a little brown bottle of water from Walden Pond that I've had for 40 years. I keep it, wi its cork stopper, on a shelf near my desk for inspiration. It is still clear, and there is no growth. Must be miraculous!

[mary alice at mystery lovers bookshop]

The huge alter at the national Portrait gallery in the Folk Art area is awesome and the one man construction was a lifelong devotion......late to work.....it's all foil, lightbulbs and moving!

[Joshilyn Jackson]

My son and husband bike the silver comet trail here in Georgia. I used to skate it, but I never got as far as they did on bikes. They would pass a thing Sam called "The Heebie-Jeebie on his their route.

Once I changed my skates for a rentabike and went with them, and realized the heebie jeebie was actually an altar for Jennifer Ewing, a woman who was dragged off her bike and killed by a man who recently got the death penalty.

It is an altar made of cyclist's water bottles. FOr some reason, this heaplike thing made the whole thing real to me in a way the news stories did not.

I don't skate that trail any more.

http://projects.ajc.com/gallery/view/metro/cobb/silver-comet-ewing-jury/5.html

[xena]

When I first joined The Sacred Dance Guild and went to my first festival in California I didn't know what to expect.
It turned out to be an experience I'll never forget. The Ballet Pacifico Folklorico Company did a ballet about the story of The Virgin De Guadelupe that moved me so I started collecting statues.
Today I have a wall next to the front door covered in shrine like dedication. Things people give me because they know I'm fascinated by her. She's on my dashboard and my refrigerator and the outside of my wallet.
I'm Lutheran but always visit the churches where the crutches line the wall and you can light a candle.
As for roadside crosses...you can't drive through the mountains in Venezuela without them. It's a sheer drop off the narrow road with no rail so they really do keep you on "The straight and narrow" lighting the way from one to the next.
I have Saint bracelets too. My friend Shawn, who is a black lady and Baptist, wears at least 3 at a time. She says you can never have enough Saints.
Dance is very spiritual for me. I think your love of alters must fulfill a spiritual side of you too Barbara!

[Elaine Viets]

Fort Lauderdale has many roadside altars, often with teddy bears and plastic flowers. They are a creepy reminder of how many people die in traffic accidents. I don't like them, but if they get drivers to slow down, they may be worthwhile.

[Storyteller Mary]

I was a Baptist until age 10 (no altars), then Catholic until college but never thought to make my own altars -- though I was pleased to see the stained glass from St. Patrick's church on Olive, now closed, moved and refitted for St. Patrick's school in Wentzville.

I did, however, make a small altar when my house was being built. It began at Mara's (my P.T.) suggestion when I mentioned that I just couldn't bring myself to throw away the mud from the site that I had cleaned from my shoes. I put it in a little apothecary bottle a student had given me (had been filled with red hots). I set it in front of a photo, and then added bits of rock, nails, insulation, as the process went on . . . It was a good focus over the six months of waiting.

The roadside altars are sad reminders, and I wish they would encourage safer driving, but they don't seem to. One was in such a hazardous spot that our school moved everything to our campus, at the request of the police, who were worried it would cause another accident.

Snow here! I'll drive very carefully the 1/4 mile to the Y to teach aqua-aerobics at noon . . .

BTW, I accidentally drank water at Delphi, not knowing that a red faucet meant "unsafe." Between prayers and vitamins and acidophilus, I was okay.

[Barbara O'Neal]

Oh, Reine, I love your walking altar aunt. That's lovely.

I knew there would be mixed feelings about descants. They're hotly debated here--should they be here, should they not--but if it gives relatives comfort, I figure why not?

Harley, you, too! I've done that with my animals, also. We've lost two very old animals the past year (Esmerelda, Siamese cat, age 23 and Sasha the Shepherd Terrier mutt, age 17) and I've been mulling what to do. Something funny and happy.

Edie, from Walden Pond! That's pretty cool. I love that it's still clear after all this time.

The Tupac one is my favorite.

Joss, that's very touching, but also sobering.

[marie]

The altars that I remember most were the decorated altars in my Church on Holy Thursday.
We would do the seven churches in my city, starting early in the morning and visiting each or as many as we could all day.
The most beautiful of all churches was St. Anthony's where beautiful white banks of flowers were displayed and many red votive candles were lit to create a most beautiful and mesmerizing sight.
Crosses hung in my homes but holy cards and rosaries were in our possession during the grown-up years.

[Deb]

Harley and Barbara,

When a friend had to have his dog put down a couple of years ago, the veterinarian gave him a shadow box with a cutting of the dog's fur, the collar the dog was wearing when he died, his dog tags, the dog's name in calligraphy, and a couple of other items that I can't remember. I can't tell you how moved my friend was to receive this! It holds a place of honor in his home. It was very, very difficult for him to make the decision to have the dog euthanized, and this gesture on the part of the veterinarian helped him tremendously afterwards in the healing process.

[Diana in STL]

I, too, have mixed feelings about roadside altars. I don't think I would want to see one constantly if it was someone I knew.

Hijack: I download audio books on my I-pod and will continue to do so since many of the TLC books are available from audible.com as well as other author favorites and I listen while traveling and working on projects around the house.

I'm debating an e-reader and am torn between the Nook color and the Kindle. The Kindle seems to have a larger variety of books but I'm interested in some of the other features on the Nook Color.

Any features you love or hate about Nook or Kindle?
Thanks

[gaylin in vancouver]

We don't get many roadside altars in Vancouver. I know the city of Victoria (on Vancouver Island) posts black dot road signs. Where there has been a traffic fatality, they post a square white road sign with a black circle in the middle to let people know to take care.

When I do see the occasional roadside altar it is usually looking pretty raggedy, Vancouver rainy, windy weather takes a toll quickly.

I don't have altars in my home, unless the stack of boxes containing my paper supplies counts!

[Tina]

Whenever I've seen a roadside alter, I've always thought how dirty and messy and don't we have enough garbage around here! They shouldn't be allowed. I will now look at them completly different and be more understanding.

From a previous blog, someone asked what our word of the year would be. I chose 2. Understand and accept.

[marie]

I have the Nook original but here is a link to compare the Nook color to Kindle:

http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2371554,00.asp

Hope this helps.

[Carol R]

I don't like roadside altars either. Most of them are tacky and end up looking more like trash than a memorial. I drove through Montana once and noticed little white crosses along the road. The state puts up a cross for every fatality so if an accident claimed five lives there will be five crosses in that spot. I found that to be a valuable reminder to pay attention. Especially since Montana had no speed limit on the highways at the time.

[Diana in STL]

Thanks Marie

[Reina]

Two brief stories:

My first mother-in-law passed away after an lingering illness at the young age of 54 and her boys (including my now ex husband) couldn't bear the thought of burying her ashes, but no one could agree with what they wanted to do with them, so for about 5 years they sat in my living room, on top of my piano, in their hermetically sealed plastic box. It never bothered me to have them in my home, and I would sometimes talk to her as I went about my day. Still, it made us laugh each time my daughter (a teen at the time) would ask her "flavor of the week" if he had met her grandmother yet, then handed the shocked young man the box of ashes; irreverent, yes, but my MIL would have loved it!

My mother, a Lutheran preacher's wife (my dad has been gone for 16.5 years now) has angels everywhere! She collects all kinds: glass, ceramic, wood, paper; stylized, realistic looking, ethereal; and she has them displayed in altar-like groupings all over her house, amongst family pictures and treasured momentos.

Those are/were my favorite "non-traditional" altars.

[Barbara O'Neal]

I don't have a Nook or a Kindle, but read on my iPad with a Kindle app. I do think about getting a Kindle, though, because my eyes get so tired of looking at the computer screen.

[Nancy Martin]

One Christmas I made a kind of altar on our mantle, made of childhood toys and books that had belonged to various family members. It included a Horatio Alger book, THE STORE BOY, that had been my grandfather's, who owned a store when I knew him. I couldn't bear to divvy up all the toys and books when the holiday was over. They're still in a drawer together. I think I'll get them out again--maybe for Easter.

I'm with Tina---never thought much about roadside altars, but I am going to pay closer attention now. That's what I like about you, Barbara---you pay close attention. I have only a small altar, presided over by a serene statue given to me by Harley, of course!

[Nancy Martin]

I broke down and ordered an iPad.--It has both Kindle and Nook apps!

[Laura (in PA)]

Barbara, I have and iPad, which I love with a passion, but I bought a Kindle too, because reading the Kindle is a lot easier on the eyes. I use the iPad Kindle or B&N app, but if I want to read for a good length of time, I find it much easier on the Kindle. Just my 2 cents. :)

[Reine]

There is a roadside altar on the side of Hwy. 14 near Robbers Roost on the way to Mammoth, built to honor Father John Crowley, a priest who served the area. Fr. Crowley was a parish priest for many years before becoming Chancellor of the Diocese of Monterey-Fresno. When he became too ill to do that job he was pretty much forced out, it seems, so he returned to a former pastorate in Lone Pine, a small community that had been devastated by the Great Depression, only to be further depressed by the loss of the Owens River water to the city of Los Angeles.

Fr. Crowley dedicated his remaining years to motivating others in leadership to help rebuild the community by restoring the confidence of the people. He worked with other civic leaders to restore the people's confidence and local economy. He became known by everyone in that part of the Mojave as the "Padre of the Desert." A memorial cross, built by the young men of the area, marks the site where Fr. Crowley died in an automobile accident in March on Highway 14 near the Walker Pass highway, exactly 71 years ago. And yes, people still place flowers there. Sometimes fresh. Sometimes plastic. But always remembered. After all this time.

[Reine]

On e-reading: I find the Kindle and Nook way too dark and with indistinct print - not sharp. The iPad, however is very clear and sharp and the intensity of the light can be lowered. Also, the colors and tones of the "paper" and "print" can be be changed to suit the reader. I read outside all the time and have no problem with glare on my iPad.

[Karen in Ohio]

I also like the sharpness of the print on the Nook Color, which I've had for three weeks or so. And am now obsessed with. The case I chose turns into an easel, which made it very handy for reading on the plane. It also has a bigger screen than the original Nook, which seemed way too small to me.

For the money it's a nice little gadget, and has worked without a hitch, so far. It's also not hard to read in sunlight, in case you worried about that, Diane. Unless the sun is shining directly on it, it's great.

[Barbara O'Neal]

Beautiful story, Reine!

I am pathetically addicted to my iPad, I have to admit

[Hank Phillippi Ryan]

Oh, gosh. I never thought about my little piles/feathers/notes/fortunes/matchbooks that way. Huh.

Roadside memorials. Give me pause. Which I guess is the point.

Oh, this is so incredibly thought-provoking.

[Diana in STL]

Thanks for all the input ladies. I ended up ordering Nook color since I had lots of Best Buy Reward Zone dollars to use. I've resisted the I-pad which is unusual for a gadget guru like me.

Marie's web site was helpful too but it is always better to get first-hand information.

[marie]

Diane in STL it is good to be able to get opinions from others who own ereader devices.
My Nook is six months old and I like the fact that I can enlarge the font size.
I am seeking a virtual guru/geek who can tell me why my charger light on my Nook will not shut off after the Nook is charged,
I still cling to my print books too and have sometimes bought the ereader version and the print version of the same book..yes it was a Tart book. call me a fanatic. LOL.

[Diana in STL]

Thanks so much Marie. I ordered it at Best buy dot com then picked it up this evening. I will definitely still cling to print books too. Just reread my post above and meant to say good to get not better to get first-hand. I really appreciated your web site information. Once I checked the comparisons on the site I had pretty much made up my mind then the tarts comments clinched it. The short battery life is the biggest drawback especially on long plane rides but I can listen to an audio book on my i-pod and/or bring real books for those. I just noticed the newest Maisie Dobbs is available, now I'll have to decide whether to Nook or i-pod. Decisions, decisions.

I downloaded one book for my next trip and have played sudoku on the Nook already. I suspect I'll succumb to an I-Pad one day but I'm trying to be good.
Thanks again. Would you believe we're supposed to have 2 or 3" of snow tomorrow. It was 83 the other day. We had 1/2" or so today.Crazy MO weather.

[miumiu]

You can share some of your article, I'm like you write something, really very good! I will continue to focus on.