A Thousand Words
By Jock Lauterer
Down in singing Silver Creek I have spent many a happy hour building little rock dams in the clear water that runs through our mountain cabin’s holler. But lately I have begun seeking a more satisfying form of adult play. Thus I stumbled on Zen rock stacking, such a deceptively simple therapy. I quickly learned that if my chi wasn’t right, if I was distracted and upset about something, that the rocks would not obey my hands. The rocks becalmed me and taught me to center. Earlier this summer, after finishing a pair of rock pillars, I thought it would make a nice photograph, but it wasn’t until I held the camera to my eye that I saw what I’d built. There in the camera viewfinder stood the Twin Towers. Out of the flat, wet, slippery creek rocks, a memorial to 9/11 had risen unbidden. So during this week of service and remembrance, let us all raise high our own personal memorials to that awful day, and vow somehow to make life better – not for ourselves, but for others. Now that’s real therapy.
A THOUSAND WORDS
Do you have an important old photo that you value? Email your photo to jock@email.unc.edu and include the story behind the picture. Because every picture tells a story. And its worth? A thousand words.
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