Legendary Rocks

One of my favorite duties as a grandfather is taking the grandchildren on exciting expeditions in the river bottoms near the homestead house in Ridgefield. Whenever they come over and the weather is pleasant, we will pack a bag full of snacks and pile onto one of the four wheelers.

We ride the four wheeler down to the old Pioneer Cemetery and park it at the entrance gate. Next we walk down a road that descends down to the bottoms. There we have a great time eating snacks and exploring the many ponds, creeks and marshes of the river bottoms.

There are many ways to get dirty and muddy, but that's the whole point -- to get grubby and have a good time doing it.

On one of these occasions, I was quite amused about what developed as we were coming back home. This was in the Spring of 2017. The winter rains had been particularly heavy and washed out large sections of the road. There were thousands of large round river rocks strewn about, most of which were rather plain grey rocks that had been smoothed by years of tumbling in the riverbeds. Occasionally, you could find one that was a little different from the rest. Perhaps it was white instead of grey. Some of them were reddish or nearly dark purple. Some of them had steaks of quarts or other interesting features that made them stand out from the other dull grey ones.

On our journey back home, as we walked on the road back up the hill to the cemetery, Grady decided to assume the role of “gemstone expert.” Whenever he saw a particular rock of interest, he would pick it up and use an appropriate adjective to classify it. The first few rocks were described by phrases such as “Oh here’s a cool one” or “this one is kind of pretty.” Now Madden and Charly were quite eager to assume the role of “gemstone pack-mules.” They were enthusiastically willing to receive Grady’s choices of the best rocks and incorporate them into their own personal treasure trove.

Soon, both Madden and Charly had all the rocks they could carry, but we were only half-way up the hill and there were plenty of treasures left to discover. Madden's pockets were so full of rocks that his pants were on the verge of falling to his ankles, but he was determined to get all his priceless treasures back home. Charly didn't have pockets, so she clutched all her treasures to her chest with both arms. When Grady pointed out another rock on the ground, she would bend over to get it and loose several from her collection in the process.

It was impressive to observe Grady's skill at filling his role. His adjectives got progressively stronger as he went on. "Pretty" and "cool" progressed to "awesome" and "amazing." Soon he was all the way up to using "spectacular" and finally "legendary." I really couldn't tell if he actually believed his own sales pitch. His enthusiasm was infectious and convincing, but I thought I detected a slight impish grin in his expression. After all, he wasn't carrying a single rock and yet his younger brother and sister were staggering up the hill with all they could carry. Someday I'll have to ask  him if he was having a little fun at their expense or if he was genuinely convinced of the immense value of his gemstone appraisals.

It caused me to reflect a bit about the experience. It made me wonder about how willing I am to believe the sales pitch of the worldly salesmen. Is it possible that I am just as easily convinced to carry a burden of stones through life, whose value is probably not nearly as high as purported by the "subtle craftiness" of those who "lie in wait to deceive?"

As I pondered later over the experience, I became grateful for the knowledge that we have a reliable source of appraisals we can trust to help us assign value to that which will truly bring lasting joy.