... on the morning of election day john called, "would you like to go out and paddle the canoe with me" ... many reasons, of course, but especially knowing that he is fully aware of the inefficiency of my paddling skills i was quite honored by the offer ... we put in where route 201a crosses the kennebec river in embden ... after negotiating what to me were some most frightening rapids (john laughing all the time, i'm sure to him the cascading torrent was naught but a very minor surface disturbance) we drifted with the current until we were in the lee of a great black ledge of metamorphosed shale that juts from the river's forested west bank ...
... over 100 individual engravings have been found on the ledge ... there were many more, years ago, before a logging company blasted away much of the rock to clear the channel for the huge rafts of tree trunks they floated down the river ... the markings are very, very difficult to photograph, especially when there is no contrasting light ...
... this one fascinated me ... the algonkians who passed this way, possibly around the time the first europeans were exploring the coast of new england, but equally likely that it was several thousand years ago, carved many images on these rocks ... birds, animals, little houses, various abstract symbols, etc. ... this little guy is most striking, however ... what's poking out from his side is exactly what you think it is ... off to the right, no longer visible, was a line of little dots indicating—well, indicating that the little rigid member did, indeed, function properly ...
... they thought it important to record that before they moved on ...
... when i saw the modern graffiti my first reactions were of dismay and disgust—until, that is, i thought on it a bit ... leah and joey, it seems, did no more and no less than what those ancient travelers had done ... of course, i wish they hadn't scratched their vows across the great fire-breathing dragon, if for no other reason than it took the mighty glooscap seven arrows to kill the damn thing, but—
—but, i had to remind myself that the only reason any of the prehistoric markings remain is because this side of the ledge is shielded from the abrasive scouring of spring's gravel and sand filled flood waters ... after a certain span of years, quite possibly the same number the happy little man has been sitting here, a great glacier will polish this bit of ledge smooth again and no evidence will remain that either the algonkians, or leah and joey, ever passed this way ...
... but they did ...
... and john and i, and now you, too, know it ...
... and that's what's most important ...
"only the rocks live forever—only the rocks live forever"
GREY WOLF-CENTENNIAL
... this fine morning i was awoken not by my alarm clock nor the noise of business beginning on the street beneath my window ... rather, it was the ringing of my phone that ended my slumber, and this day's fresh consciousness began with my daughter's sweet voice, "dad ... well, how it all turned out ... are you okay ... i just wanted to check" ...
... life is good ... life is very, very good ...
"tomorrow is another day"
SCARLETT O'HARA-GONE WITH THE WIND