Photo Prayer 2021-42 -- Rock Work
When rock is what we have, rock is what we use. It may not be what we prefer or were trained to work but it is what we have. Stubborn, hard, durable, difficult to shape, earth-born, resistant to change, married to tradition and set in its ways, it can be neither bullied nor seduced, but it can be loved. We move our hands over the boulder, caressing it. We strike it here and there, listening to it ring. We see the line of the grain. Only then do we drill our shallow holes, insert the feather shims, and drive home the plug wedges. The pitch rises with our firm yet gentle hammer blows. We hear the strain increasing. Suddenly, with a satisfying crack, the boulder splits. Now we can build.
Photo of rock out-buildings in fog, Warslow, Peak District, England.
Photo copyright 2018; text, 2021 by Danny N. Schweers.
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Comments
Sybil wrote:
The Japanese have a word, “shibui”, meaning something like worn, weathered, beautiful. Perhaps like the patina of silver long used. I love this picture, the stillness, the fog, the worn and weathered stone. It speaks of endurance through it all!
Marina wrote:
Where we don't have rocks, we build grass huts, use bamboo slats, adapt to the coming rains, winds, floods, and build again until the next typhoon. For all that, it takes a village, hope, faith, love.
Ernestine wrote:
When reading the passages about rocks my mind immediately thought about people who will not get vaccinated from the COVID-19. They are set against it, whether it be family tradition because we know that some parents would not allow their children to get the different vaccinations at childhood; some reject vaccines because of racial history of African Americans and the don't trust government in these United States and some have the attitude that it’s a trick to track who and where you are and there are various other reasons, some I just can't wrap my head around but the reality of all these reasons is distrust of white people who are in authority and white people who think they are entitled to do what the want and when they want and nobody is going to tell them what to do. I have heard this since the beginning of this pandemic. So the connection between rocks and people is you can crack the rock with much force but humans are a different matter, they can think and form opinions, that's how God made us, right or wrong.
Alice wrote:
Impressive photo. The colors and contrast are outstanding.
Anne wrote:
Photo looks great - almost resembles Brandywine State Park and some of the buildings on Route 92 in northern Delaware.