We are in Custer, South Dakota for a few nights. Last night, we went to see the Crazy Horse Memorial, which is quite an interesting sight indeed. I find it fascinating that one family would make this their generational life's project, without federal government aid. At the same time, I find myself wishing that they would accept it, because there is no way this will be finished in my lifetime.
Watching the video about the man behind the vision, and the work that has been done was thought-provoking. The size of the sculpture is a bit incomprehensible to me. Today, we went to Mount Rushmore, which was completed in a relatively few years because of available funding...but I found myself underwhelmed, again because of the size of the project. The four faces of Mount Rushmore are lovely, and we were introduced to them in grand fashion on the spectacular Needle's highway. But all four of them will fit inside the hair of Crazy Horse.
Perhaps the other reason that I am underwhelmed today is just due to all the tourism surrounding the sculptures. Some of it is okay--I like when I have a choice about what I want to see, and I don't really mind paying access fees. But I dislike it when it is commercialized for money's sake alone, and there is a lot of that around here. Need a Rushmore Burger? We can find that for you. A bunch of Lincoln fries? That's here too.
Ugh.
No comments:
Post a Comment