The latest mind candy: cutting and shaping stones. The equipment is here. A willing if somewhat garrulous teacher is here, and rocks are everywhere. While there are over two tons of fancy cutting stock laying around here, I have only to walk into the woods and pick up a stone.
That's what I did yesterday. I had a project weighing on my mind, and I walked out into the woods behind the house... kicking over rocks and digging through the underbrush. Looking for an old piece of the earth that matched what my minds eye was imaging. A stone that had inside it what I wanted. I found it.
Perhaps one of the things about stone cutting that fascinates me.... is the way it demonstrates humanity. Not wishy washy liberal humanity, but the real meaning. Being human, being a man, having control over my environment and shaping it to fit my desires. I wish this piece of common stone to be a new shape and serve a new purpose, and by the power of my hands it will. It's that ability that sets us apart from all others on this planet.
In this case, my desire was a set of book ends. With a special purpose in mind, I wanted a stone of a certain color. Making slow and deliberate slices with a diamond saw, I took a common stone from the wood and reshaped it to match my desire. A flat and stable bottom. Wide interior surfaces to support specific journals for years to come, and front faces with a polished glimpse into the heart of the stone.
I made exactly what I wanted, and it felt good. It will feel even better when I gift them to their new home, to the person they were made for.
In cutting and polishing the stone, a recurring thought played across my consciousness. One stone into two. Two stones, of the same source. Two stones that are really one, just separated by space and time and circumstance. Set side by side, their origin flashes into obviousness.
Taken separately, each has it's own beauty, and flaws, and strengths. Placed together all thats good is multiplied. Their common past life becomes clear and they deserve to be together from then on. It's right... that they serve their purpose beside each other.
Each piece, an individual and unique thing. Taken alone, separately, each has it's own value and beauty. Each would serves it purpose without peer. But, place them together, and they magnify each others essential character until the union produces something new and better.
Something beautiful to the eye of a man.
1 comment:
That was a superlative piece, no, not the bookends, though they are superb. The words. You need to save that one for publication somewhere, sometime. It's a message too many have forgotten.
You said it so well. That piece of stone has integrity, just like man, and far less seldom. You simply brought it out with your hands.
Beautiful.
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