stone

but harder than stone
is the flesh and bone
of a troll that sits
in the hills alone
as soon set your foot
to the mountain’s root
for the seat of the troll don’t feel it…


I like rocks. Can’t say I know much about them, of course. Wouldn’t be able to tell you the difference between limestone and granite if my life depended on it. But today I’ve had some time to appreciate stone on a whole new level.
First, of course, Mt. Rushmore in all it’s glory. So neat to read the story; so worth it to be so near to the actual icon. 60-foot-high heads are nothing to sneeze at, let me tell you! You could probably ask me or Tammy now all sorts of Mt. Rushmore trivia and we’d fill your cup of curiosity well past the “runneth over”!

Next up was Wind Cave. Fancy being 20 stories underground, hearing tales of the discovery and exploration of the 4th largest cave network in the world. Wind Caves are unusual for their box work limestone formations and hundreds of maze-like passages. I like thinking of the lacey formations growing slowly underground with no one but God knowing of their existence until the late 1800s. I couldn’t help recall the question God asks Job in the Bible: where, indeed, were we when He built the foundations of the earth?!

We wrapped up our stone explorations for the day by making our way back to Crazy Horse – another mind-boggling exhibition of mountain carving and human achievement. This monument dwarfs Mt. Rushmore – and every other monument in the world including the pyramids! It’s far from being complete and you can’t but admire the determination of the family that carries on the work, and their insistence on doing it all with private funds. They’ve turned down two ten million dollar federal grants because they believe in free enterprise and don’t think that tax dollars should go to it. Huh!

Old Tom’s lame
Since home he came
And his bootless foot
Is lasting lame
But troll don’t care
And he’s still there…(probably my favorite Tolkien poem!)