Mount Vesuvius trapped them in its ashen tombs. Was this why people filled their frames with family photos? One sudden flash and the people you cared for would be preserved in their innocence, their happiness, before one could do harm to the other?
i like the anology, yes we can all go in a flash of light, so photographs help the memory process, and should enable the process of thinking how arbitrary god is that he kills or maims anyone of any religion, color, creed, political affinity etc
