The Bottomless Depths of Time

Went exploring today. Discovered a mess of fossils, well actually only two worth mentioning, the rest being really small indentations from little brachiopods, and deep casts from something that appears to be crinoids, but aren't. Possibly some form of coral? They are about 3/4 an in wide, perfectly cylindrical pits. Judging from my big find, they were formed by some branch type structure, about about 1/4th inch deep/wide, with 1/4th inch segments. I also found what appears to be some form of snail, or perhaps really small ammonite.

Kicking rocks is a Zen activity, it clears your mind, enveloping yourself in hundreds of millions of years of history. At one distant point in time, these little marks were living things, unique individual entities. Over eons of weather, they slowly reveal themselves to us, once they were buried under millions of tons of geology, and now, little finite humans can find them. When your enveloped in that type of scale, how can you think any of this matters? George Bush, Iraq, taxes, petty drama, the stress, the... You get the point. None of this stands up in the light of geologic (deep) time. We must disappear in the face of such monolithic (heh) forces. There is no human event that can compete with geology, time, not even death (I was standing on the individual deaths of millions of once-existant entities)

Was also going to find the mythic "Bottomless Pits" of Flagstaff. Never found them, for real. But after wandering 1/3 mile down Campbell Park (or trail head?), we discovered a little map with information on their location. Sadly it was getting dark, so no mystery for me. The mystery is that no one knows of these "pits", apparently, though, children used to disappear down them from time to time. Older residents knew of them, but now, they are mostly forgotten. It seems like something from a Stephen King novel, no? I must see them! Mystery! Sinister! Obscurity! What is there not to like?

Related Tags: Zen . Flagstaff . fossils . Bottomless Pits . geology