WHAT’S REALLY IN A GRAIN OF SAND
CALIFORNIA beaches are known all over the world for sun, sand and surf, though these particular winter pandemic days, I would have to say cold sun, sand and surf. Still, I recall sitting on a boulder on a favorite beach south of SanFran, reveling in the momentary warmth of the afternoon sun and pondering an errant grain of sand sticking to the palm of my hand.
That tiny grain, I supposed, had to have come from somewhere other than where I was sitting. My first thought was that it probably came from the Sierra Nevada Mountains, moving through the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta, washing into the Bay and ending up here. That would make the bit on my hand a tiny eroded part of a rock, which means mostly silica. It could, however, have come from the ocean from ground up sea shells which would make it mostly calcium carbonate. Either way, it’s the end result of ages of slow erosion whether collected at the ocean’s edge or in the inland deserts formed by inland oceans. There was a certain romantic feeling, holding in my hand something that took eons of time to form. A tiny piece of a much greater whole, a planet upon which we live and are solely dependent. In that moment, that single grain felt like a part of a Higher Power or Spirit infusing the very rock upon which I was sitting — a rock flying through the void of space at a reckless 60,000 mph (100,000 km/h), going fast somewhere yet nowhere in particular.
That evening, I surfed the internet to find that the “famous white-sand beaches of Hawaii…actually come from the poop of parrotfish. The fish bite and scrape algae off of rocks and dead corals with their parrot-like beaks, grind up the inedible calcium-carbonate reef material (made mostly of coral skeletons) in their guts, and then excrete it as sand.” I might be holding a fleck of fish poop. So much for romance.
And yet…there’s something about the complex diversity of everything that exists that truly IS romantic, and in much the same way as that felt between two persons who suddenly become acutely aware of each other and a spark of attraction. This greater romance is something I specifically explore and share in my newly released novel THE EDGE OF MADNESS (Aignos 2020) by Raymond Gaynor. It’s the pleasure one derives from being a complex part of a greater, diverse whole. Taking up where TOTAL MELTDOWN (Borgo/Wildside 2009) by Raymond Gaynor and William Maltese left off, NewAmerica, a shadow of its former United States of America, provides a challenging and dangerous future place for three young firebrands to live.
Total Meltdown: A Tripler and Clarke Adventure
The Edge of Madness
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Je6CC...
That tiny grain, I supposed, had to have come from somewhere other than where I was sitting. My first thought was that it probably came from the Sierra Nevada Mountains, moving through the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta, washing into the Bay and ending up here. That would make the bit on my hand a tiny eroded part of a rock, which means mostly silica. It could, however, have come from the ocean from ground up sea shells which would make it mostly calcium carbonate. Either way, it’s the end result of ages of slow erosion whether collected at the ocean’s edge or in the inland deserts formed by inland oceans. There was a certain romantic feeling, holding in my hand something that took eons of time to form. A tiny piece of a much greater whole, a planet upon which we live and are solely dependent. In that moment, that single grain felt like a part of a Higher Power or Spirit infusing the very rock upon which I was sitting — a rock flying through the void of space at a reckless 60,000 mph (100,000 km/h), going fast somewhere yet nowhere in particular.
That evening, I surfed the internet to find that the “famous white-sand beaches of Hawaii…actually come from the poop of parrotfish. The fish bite and scrape algae off of rocks and dead corals with their parrot-like beaks, grind up the inedible calcium-carbonate reef material (made mostly of coral skeletons) in their guts, and then excrete it as sand.” I might be holding a fleck of fish poop. So much for romance.
And yet…there’s something about the complex diversity of everything that exists that truly IS romantic, and in much the same way as that felt between two persons who suddenly become acutely aware of each other and a spark of attraction. This greater romance is something I specifically explore and share in my newly released novel THE EDGE OF MADNESS (Aignos 2020) by Raymond Gaynor. It’s the pleasure one derives from being a complex part of a greater, diverse whole. Taking up where TOTAL MELTDOWN (Borgo/Wildside 2009) by Raymond Gaynor and William Maltese left off, NewAmerica, a shadow of its former United States of America, provides a challenging and dangerous future place for three young firebrands to live.
Total Meltdown: A Tripler and Clarke Adventure
The Edge of Madness
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Je6CC...
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