FILL ‘ER UP!

Many of our parks in America, especially our national parks, feature canyons, gorges, mountains, deserts, scenic overlooks, oceans, lakes, rivers — seemingly endless voids and large expanses of open water.

And I have noticed that lots of boys and men — rarely women — like to throw rocks into these blank spaces, be it a deep hole in the ground, the Grand Canyon, or the Atlantic Ocean at Acadia National Park. They walk to the edge, stare out in wonder, and then look for a small stone to chuck into the emptiness.

It’s like we humans have a territorial imperative to — what? Stake our claim? Watch a small rock drop slowly into great nothingness? Do we wonder what it might feel like to freefall and then hit the bottom? Does it reveal some truth about the mystery of life? Or is just a guy thing and we like to chuck rocks?

I know that in the scheme of things throwing rocks into the abyss aint a big deal. But it seems to happen instinctively, without conscious thought, which means it’s probably reptilian brain in origin and all about survival. And if that’s true, then we undoubtedly wouldn’t have made it this far as a species without a good pitching arm.

“NO SKIN” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GLtv7OzokyI