Sometimes I would like to be rock, stone, standing impermeable against the elements, against the world.
But neither rock nor stone win in the end; they get taken down; eaten away, cracked, eroded over time.
Wind and water abide. Their persistence and patience are too much for stone.
People have always sought meaning, wisdom, and strength in rocks, it seems. From building tools and weapons, to palming and rubbing a stone smooth in our hands.
I am drawn to stones.
Carl Jung knew something about why:
Many people cannot refrain from picking up stones of a slightly unusual color or shape and keeping them… without knowing why they do. It is as if the stone held a mystery in it that fascinates them. Men have collected stones since the beginning of time and have apparently assumed that certain ones were containers of the spirit of the life force with all its mystery. – Carl Jung, “Man and His Symbols”
The church I grew up going to is built of stone. It has the feel of something ancient, something permanent. I have to go back to Jung:
The stone symbolized something that can never be lost or dissolved, something eternal that some have compared to the mystical experience of God within one’s own soul. It symbolizes what is perhaps the simplest and deepest experience of something eternal that man can have in those moments when he feels immortal and unalterable. – Carl Jung, “Man and His Symbols”
Ah, but the hubris of man. Our audacity. We want something permanent. We want something to build on; to be that which is built on. The cool, vastness of a mountain. Let me be that. To stand like stone.
We use stones as offerings. We build. Standing stones were built, formations, as offerings to God. A temple.
But God prefers people.
You also, like living stones, are being built into a spiritual house
– 1 Peter 2:5
People build with stone. God builds his greatest work, love, with people.
Living stones. Being built into something. Maybe I can build with words. If not my own, then Gary Snyder’s as an incantation:
Lay down these words
Before your mind like rocks.
Snyder’s words are riprap. Pick mine up like a stone to rub in your hand and carry with you. Pocket them and pull them out when you need them.
What will they say to you?