How Long?
We arrived at the lake house a short walk from the east side of Lake Michigan. Annually we have a four to five day, all-family get together. The “big event” is the interest derived from being by the big lake. Weather, that is, the wind swept sky, the waves, and the shore itself which is visibly sculpted by the impact of the big lake in the twelve months since we last visited, is a compelling feature of interest of this environment. With each day and each sunset, nature puts on a show for us.
I collect pebbles in the course of walks on the shoreline sand. We look for interesting colors, patterns which have been revealed by the constant abrasion of wave driven sand upon the surface of the spoon-sized rocks. These are keepsakes which we will take 
with us when we return after our stay here.
I reach for a candidate pebble for our collection, and admire the tactile smooth surface, noting the shading of color, sometimes I wonder: How long did it take for the movement, the elan vital of the living earth to polish this fragment of the earth’s mantle, originally a jagged piece of molten rock expelled from a fissure —into this smooth gem-like keepsake?
How does one measure time? Measurements are relative. I can say this polished gem took a very long time
One thought on “How Long?”
How long indeed. Our perception of time is limited to our specific knowledge, i.e. 24 hours equals a day, a year goes by in four seasons, a lifetime is 80 years if we’re lucky. These are the boundaries of our direct understanding. Perhaps we can stretch our minds to encompass our parent generation, but only in our imagination and through their own stories.
In this essay you mention the rocks on the beach and ponder the time it took to bring them to your hand. Yet when we juxtapose your rock with your recent missive about SMACS 0723 and the images from the Webb, we are witnessing light that is much older than your rock. Light that, in comparison, makes your rock appear as relative infant.
On the other hand, we are ancient beings as compared to the life of a fruit fly. Do fruit flies wish they could live as long as these gargantuan bipeds? Probably not. Do some of us wish we could live as long as the light from the stars? Probably so, but everything is relative.