| Time Marches On |
3 May 2003
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New Hampshire's Old Man is Gone
Those who have not visited New Hampshire's White Mountains may still recognize the state's Old Man of the Mountain. The rock outcropping that showed the profile of a man not entirely unlike Abraham Lincoln is featured on the reverse of the quarter-dollar coin that represents the state in the US mint's new design. Sadly, the Old Man collapsed Saturday, the victim of erosion, despite the best efforts of New Hampshire's residents to save him. It is a parable of life.
New Englanders are a self-reliant bunch, the result of social evolution and historic happenstance. They are very loyal to their little patch of planet Earth, and few could imagine living elsewhere. They are proud of their history, which by European standards is not very long. Yet they will put as much effort into saving an old barn for its historic value as any Athenian would for the Parthenon.
For over a century, the people of New Hampshire have glued, tied with cable and shored up as best as engineering could that flinty face of granite. Yet the natural freeze and thaw finally succeeded in beating them. The calls to restore it should be ignored -- let the Old Man rest.
The world itself changes around Humanity. The world of our grandparents is not our world, and that of our grandchildren most assuredly will not be like this one. We must "rage against the dying of the light" for that is what it means to be a human -- to protect that which has value, the resist that which erodes it. Yet when the inevitable finally happens, moving on is the only choice. Restoring that which passed on from natural causes only cheapens the memory -- the difference between the glories of the ancient world, and the Las Vegas imagery of them.
The Old Man in New Hampshire is gone, and someday, even Everest will be no more. Nothing is forever, and so, each person has a duty to history to make each day matter. Not in some sales huckster way, but rather to live deliberately, to be alive, not just exist. Life has a time limit, and that is what makes it worthwhile.