The Solidity of Rocks

The Solidity of Rocks—Some Musings

In Yosemite visiting my younger daughter and I wonder what the rocks remember? They are not preserved in special mylar-like material(my daughter works as a historical archivist up here). The rocks, whether they tumble across the road, change color from weather are just there—solid and immutable. They do not panic at the sight of a bear or a mountain lion but neither do they feel the soft pads of an animal’s feet, feet which leap lightly over their granite backs.

Though the rock is solid and does not cringe at the sound of lightening, it is also not human. We humans sigh, love, laugh-- are born and die.

When panic has gripped me in the past, closed over me like the concrete inside of an elevator stopped between floors, I want that panic to stop. But I don’t want to be armored, 21st century, against pain.

When panic stirs in me again, I will imagine a waterfall, the cool sweet water that cuts through rock: Yosemite Falls, Vernal Falls, Horse Tail Falls, flowing tufts of white emerging triumphant from the granite cliffs.