First Exit: Consider the Stones

Look around. See the stones? Rocks. Gravel. Sand. Pebbles. Boulders. Gems. Stones are ubiquitous. We see them in every direction. The whole earth—this third rock from the sun—is made of stone.

We classify them as igneous, sedimentary, and metamorphic. We name them marble, granite, limestone, `a`a lava, sandstone, quartz, basalt, slate, coal. We treasure diamonds, rubies, opals, emeralds.

They are all just stones.

This stone cairn was built on the Big Island of Hawaii overlooking the Pacific. Just a pile of stones. 2/20/2016.

We spend our lives ignoring them. Unless we trip over them or bang our heads on them, they are virtually invisible.

But stones are the miraculous building blocks of civilization. We build palaces, cathedrals, skyscrapers, castles, and shops. We carve them into sublime statues that outlive both artist and subject. We engrave them. We stack them into cairns and memorials to great achievements and to great tragedies. We lay the cornerstones of our buildings and our property boundaries, build fences and walls, and make dividing lines between our countries. Stones to keep cattle in and barbarians out.

Leaving Greece and entering Bulgaria on a bed of stones. 4/12/2016.

We crush stones into a paving bed for our roads and highways. We mold them and bake them into bricks to build homes, offices, fireplaces, and barbecues. We grind up rocks and blend the aggregate with cement—itself just more fluid rock for binding—and make blocks to build bunkers and to lay the foundations of our homes.

Wat Chedi Luang in Chiang Mai, Thailand. The oldest of some 300 temples in the region. A huge pile of stones. 3/10/2016.

The vast sandy deserts are no less than the remains of quartz mountains ground down by wind and water into tiny grains—little stones in their most malleable form. Moistened on the beach, we mold them into castles to be swept away by the tides. Under pressure, they can blast the rust from metal and clean graffiti from walls. Ground finely and heated to melting, those little stones turn transparent and we look through them. Our windows—the glass that keeps the heat in and the cold out or vice versa, that protects us from wind and debris, that mirrors our image—are just stones.

The Parthenon, Athens. A temple monument made of stones. 3/31/2016.

Incredible stone monuments are guideposts to glory of mankind—the pyramids of Giza, the Parthenon, the Great Wall of China, the Taj Mahal, Notre Dame. All made out of stones. And amidst them we find ruins—victims of siege engines that hurled rocks with such force that stone walls fell, or like Jericho crumbled at a shout.

The Theater of Dionysus in Athens. Even our entertainment is produced in a pile of stones. 3/31/2016.

The earliest weapons were no more than stones, thrown at prey or at enemies. We lay in wait and tumbled boulders on the heads of our foes. We set a stone in a sling and brought Goliath to his knees.

Or, on our knees, we present a stone in a golden ring to pledge our love and troth.

Sublime. Statue in Thessaloniki. 4/8/2016.

Yet stones are tools. The miller’s grist stone or the peasant’s mortar and pestle grind grain into flour for our bread. We pound stakes into the ground with a stone to anchor tents when we camp. We strike the stone flint against steel to create the spark that will light our fires. We surround the fire pit with stones to heat our homes and cook our food.

St. Nikolas Monastery in the Meteora of Greece. Building our retreat on top of a stone. 4/3/2016.

At the end of our lives a stone is engraved to mark our passing, returning to the soil, becoming minerals, absorbed into stone. We scatter the ashes of loved ones among the pebbles and pray for their peace and our own.

Stones simply are.

The stony shore of the Aegean Sea, Split, Croatia. 4/30/2016.

They have never asked us to believe in them. No stone has ever sent one nation to war against another. No stone has ever demanded that we believe in no other stones, that we love it, or that we bow down and worship it. No stone has enslaved people. No stone has considered one person chosen and another damned. No stone has subjugated a woman or made chattel of her children.

Old bones turned to stone. At the Museum of Natural History in Bucharest. 4/18/2016.

Stones are not capricious. They do not do not care about race, religion, national origin, sexual preference, or economic status. They are not soft for one and hard for another. They are not liquid one moment and solid the next. They don’t give blessings to one and curses to another.

Stones obey the laws of nature. They fall to the ground because of gravity. They fly through the air when propelled by force. They crumble under sufficient pressure. They are nothing more nor less than stone.

Stones hold the water in its channel. Ljubljana. 5/4/2016.

I believe my family and my child love me like I love them. I believe in the brotherhood and goodness of all mankind. I believe in the faithfulness of my friends. I believe in Mom, apple pie, and the American way.

Sometimes I even believe in God.