Grit
Before video surveillance and barbwire fences became default, the gravel pits surrounding my hometown were a preferred destination on my boys out adventures. Looking in hindsight I guess I was drawn to the brutal, wild west, edge of the world feeling of the gravel pits with their heavy excavation equipment and machinery in a rugged landscape of sand and gravel. And to the fascinating geological history that unfolds when you dig a hole in the ground and the strata are exposed. Even in the era of Anthropocene you just need to dig a hole in the ground to reach the edge of our civilization. One day we’ll be a stratigraphic unit if not a hiatus. So even though our insatiable craving for natural resources materializes in the bottom of a gravel pit, so does our undeniable insignificance on a geological timescale. Or maybe I’m just post-rationalizing my boys out adventures.
