pink~putz
bowl of stones with blue earring
In the quiet eloquence of stones can be heard echoes of the persuasiveness of water and the sharp rationality of wind. Other forces can shape stone; the zealotry of volcanic heat, the implacability of tectonic motion, even the lesser passion of the hammer and chisel…but those are violent acts inflicted on the stone. Wind and water, in contrast, are unhurried, patient, allowing the stone itself to influence its final shape.
Goethe tells us stones are mute teachers, and that the most valuable lessons we learn from them are lessons we cannot communicate to others. In this, I think, Goethe was wrong. We can pass on the wisdom we learn from stones, but only at the pace at which the wisdom was acquired. Stones are calm, eloquent teachers and they require patient students.
These stones were shaped by water. How long they lay silent in a riverbed nobody can say. What they learned was composure and constancy. What they learned was to give up what it is necessary to give up and retain what can be retained. What they learned was they can be rolled down the river by currents over which they have no control. What they learned was that rivers can run dry, or they can be caught up by man or machine and deposited miles and miles away. What they learned is wherever they find themselves, they are still stone and there is no way to know where they’ll ultimately end up.
The water taught them that.
Blog photograph copyrighted to the photographer and used with permission by utata.org. All photographs used on utata.org are stored on flickr.com and are obtained via the flickr API. Text is copyrighted to the author, greg fallis and is used with permission by utata.org. Please see Show and Share Your Work
