The Rock

The Rock of Gibraltar. The Stone of Scone. St. Peter. The Rock of Ages. The Rosetta Stone. The Lia Fáil (Stone of Destiny) on the Hill of Tara. Rock & Roll.

I like rocks. Rocks are naturally occurring solid aggregates of minerals. The Earth's outer solid layer, the lithosphere, is made of rock. The world, both literal and literary, is full of them. They are the aggregate, the collection of the many into one, on which life itself makes its home.

Now once again Thanksgiving approaches. We Americans have become ambivalent about Thanksgiving. Do we celebrate the coming of the Pilgrims? Or do we mourn the coming decimation of the tribes?

Whatever. These constituents of the earth's surface could not have stayed apart forever. Geology takes a long time to make an aggregate strong enough to hold a life in place. Life takes a while to make a place on the planet it can call home. Neither are as permanent as we may like to think they are.

I visited Plymouth a couple of years ago and took this picture. It's the iconic American rock. It offered a solid footing for people venturing into an uncertain future. It marked a boundary forever shattered by their coming.

Whatever.

It's a cool rock.

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