Get Well Soon!
HOW CAN ONE TRULY DEFINE what is, “Bad Taste” and what is not. Just as “Beauty is in the eye of the beholder,” the same can be said about humor. What one person thinks is funny another may not. In fact, I think you can be rock solid sure that for whatever one person thinks is funny there is another person who won’t laugh.
Such is the case of the picture to the right.
I think it is funny and I’ve had others say that it is “In bad taste.” Of course, if I ask them to tell me the difference, they fall silent.
One person tossed out the “bad taste” thing, saying that the balloon was what made it so bad. I then asked him if it had been a Get Well Card instead of the balloon would they have approved? That was met with stony silence. That was kind of nice compared to his whining. He was also upset when I said I would have done as much for him as was done for the deer.
Somehow I don’t think he’ll be bothering me again.
Judging from the appearance of the deer I would guess that it had been there for a day or more. The sympathetic balloon delivery person probably had seen it there by the side of the road and made a special stop at a local Dollar Store for the balloon. I doubt that the driver who hit the deer just happened to have the balloon with them. If he/she/it already had the balloon in the car then there was someone in a nearby hospital who probably got a card attached to a salt lick.
Deer are, in many ways, nothing more than big, antlered, squirrels. They don’t pay attention to the traffic and tend to stop and stare at the headlights of approaching vehicles. If that vehicle is a Vespa or a bicycle then the deer has a good chance of making it across the road. If that vehicle is an 18-wheeler Peterbilt… Well, let’s just say that chances are the deer won’t be home for supper.
Earlier this summer my wife, the lovely and with a heart of gold, Dawn, and I drove from Terre Haute (That’s French for, “Get Well Soon”) to Michigan. Along the stretch of Interstate Highway from Indy to the Michigan state line we counted about a dozen deer in need of “Get Well Soon” balloons. All of those deer may have been part of a suicide pact or they were scofflaws when it came to traffic safety.
Someone else suggested that they were all part of a club where they “played chicken” with the cars and trucks. I’d never heard of such a thing until he told me that the first rule of the club was, “Never talk about the club.”
I don’t know how much credence I can put into that idea, except that it would bring a whole new perspective to the old question –
“Why did the chicken cross the road?”
Down the Hall on Your Left 
Well, let’s query this senario. If the deer had only been injured, a “Get Well Balloon or Flowers or a Card” would have been sweet, caring, empathic, even funny in a weird way, however, a “Get Well Balloon” is adding “Insult to Injury” when an animal is already dead. And indeed, in very poor taste.
On the other hand, if this individual was using the Balloon, for a rationale for aonther purpose altogether, perhaps making the case that “Humans” should endeavor to drive more slowly, be more alert to their surroundings and could actually be sympathic to the needless death of another creature. This rationale would then be promoting “Deer Safety”, commendable, perhaps.
Consider this, children, like deer, pay little attention to crossing a road or any other danger for the most part. Would you have laughed in that regard if the balloon was attached to a dead child, no matter the point the balloon person what making?
Of course not, you would be insulted and consider the Balloon person’s “visual statement” in very bad taste.
We may never know the statement the “Balloon Person” was making. However, I for one, hope that it was a “safety issue for deer and children alike” because I can not except the alternative of one so heartless to laugh at the death of an innocent creature’s life.
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Also, thank you John Kraft, for liking my “short fictions” as well as for this very interesting post, “Get Well Soon”. It’s important to discuss moral questions such as this and points of view. Karen
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It’s a deer, not a person. I’m pretty sure the deer — being dead — is not offended by the balloon. I’m also pretty sure the deer has no family who are offended by the balloon, seeing as how they a) wouldn’t grasp the significance of the balloon and b) can’t read.
Good grief; people get bent out of shape over silly things.
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If you happen to hit a deer you can call 911 and the authorities will get in touch with Animan Control and remove the carcus. There is no need to leave it on the side of the road. As far as being funny it’s a matter of opinion and you know what they say about opinions. ☺☺☺
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Precisely.
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I can see the funny and I can see the sick, kinda like life don’t you think?
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Much of what is considered funny comes from incongruity, and I think that is the case here. And yes, life is like that.
Thanks for going into the dusty archives to find this one.
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What a coincidence! I was born just up the road from Get Well Soon — in Brazil! Small world, fellow Hoosier-by-choice…Have a balloon!
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Why, thank you. As for the deer…I don’t think it cares.
Any more.
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