I have Hafiz. I have haiku. I have a chart of the geologic time scale, a hand-scribbled map of the mountains around Roanoke, and a timeline.
The mountains towards the sunset are much younger than the ancient guardians of the east that I’ll drive past today.
Long mountain peers over my left shoulder while I type this, made of rock a billion years old.
It was old when plants sprang up.
It was old when dinosaurs were birds to be taken seriously.
If people could have hiked it, and they couldn’t, because they didn’t exist yet, they might have lost their way.
The north star didn’t exist yet.
An ocean covered it, and then the rock deep in the ground pushed it up again, and there it watches me, scramble around while I order Christmas cards.
I’m off to Roanoke to spin Elvis’ Christmas record and then go do a talk on Appalachian studies at a retirement home.
It’s my birthday next week, and I’m feeling old. The old people will tell me to feel young, and then I’ll tell them the same.
“Back in the day, there was a before GPS, a before maps, a before the north star.”
We’ll all laugh, and ponder the problem of the Subjective vs. Objective.
It’s neat to contemplate the limestone west of Roanoke, “young” at 400 million years, with it’s countless shells of a forgotten ocean, and put a number on it.
Fun fact for ya.
But so what?
Unfortunately for everyone, I’ve been reading The Lord of the Rings yet again, and am in a storytelling mood.
That’s why I have poetry books and a tiny speaker to listen to John Denver’s “Country Roads.”
Some things are more than numbers. Some things mean more than numbers…but what?
Are they older than numbers?
Maybe.
I’m off to think out loud, talking about rocks at their happy hour, and to tell a tale.
The story of the hills.
Also: I’ll be at Book No Further in Downtown Roanoke this evening from 6-9 pm hanging out, signing books, and getting into trouble.
And news of note:
Love Heals has their big benefit concert tomorrow (Saturday) in Lynchburg. Check it, man!
Josh
Old Rag’s bones formed in the Grenvillian mountain building event, a billion years ago. View from Skyline Drive.