performance art

I was driving through the rain to pick up The Boy at school today, (sadly, I've been driving a lot, because my teaching/working/childcare schedule is not - at the moment - bike friendly,) and while stopped at a light I saw a man on the corner holding a sign. This is not unusual. Many of the corners on this particular road have their regulars; there's the "VIETNAM VET/PLEASE HELP/GOD BLESS" guy, the "HOMELESS, HUNGRY, (something illegible)" fella, and - my favorite - the "WILL TAKE VERBAL ABUSE FOR A QUARTER" dude. But this man I saw today was new, and so was his sign. It read: "JESUS DIED FOR YOU."

The message irked me, as it always does, but maybe the apparent selflessness of the act (he was, after all, braving a downpour to deliver this message in - I'm guessing - the hopes of saving a soul or two, while his mendicant brethren across the street were busy looking out for their own damn selves,) sent my internal rant flowing in a different direction from my usual response. Instead of thinking about what combination of ignorance and arrogance it would take someone to make such a declaration, I began to think perhaps it's true, but if Jesus did die for me, he was only the first misguided soul to do such a thing. What about all the soldiers who've gone off to war to protect my country and my freedom?

And then I had a glorious vision. I saw George W. Bush waking up one morning with Laura sleeping on one side and his trusty Bible resting on the nightstand on the other, when through the mail slot (because in my vision, the president's mail is delivered directly to him through a slot in the door) comes a postcard. And then another. And then two more, followed by another and another until a torrent of postcards addressed to George W. Bush flood the room, and on each one is a picture of an American soldier who died in Iraq during the past four years, and underneath each picture is the message: HE (or SHE) DIED FOR YOUR SIN.

I think it would make a nice piece of performance art. Any artists out there want to run with this idea?