The Rock Edition

The Short Story - Issue 17 - July.2021

Jul 23, 2021

The Short Story by Ava Love Hanna — It wasn’t a rock. It was a rock lobster.

The Rock Edition of The Short Story by Ava Love Hanna

This week, I’ve been thinking about rocks. Nice, quiet rocks.

They’re (mostly) inorganic, they’re not likely to worsen a pandemic, and they don’t make excuses about why they won’t get a vaccine or wear a mask.

We were in the midst of planning a normal family vacation when COVID cases started shooting up again in Austin, Texas, so now we’re back to reassessing our outings and wishing our governor wasn’t as dumb as… well, a rock.

So, let’s just pick up a nice flat stone, give it a quick flick of the wrist, and skip right into The Rock Edition.

Rock Solid

First up in our calm, soothing rock edition is Chineskikan — an amazing little museum in Japan that houses a collection of ‘jinmenseki’ or rocks that look like human faces.

I love everything about this museum. Do I think they all look exactly like faces? Nope. BUT, it’s like a collection of tiny heads staring endlessly into the void and that delights me.

Finding cool rocks to pick up and bring home is an integral part of being a human — and according to Eastern philosophy may even help us to better understand our world.

Between a Rock and a Hard Place

I’ve always been a big fan of Thoreau — I claim it’s because he was a great thinker and writer, but really, I’m 100% in awe of his boss neck beard. LOOK AT IT.

Also, I love this quote from Walden in which he admits that he basically threw a tantrum over rock dust and chucked his stuff out the window because having to deal with it was messing with his “thinking time.” If you come to visit and all of my dishes are in the back yard, just know that I needed to throw them out there instead of washing them so I could write this newsletter and it’s okay because THAT’S WHAT THOREAU WOULD DO.

Rock On

Perhaps my favorite thing I discovered about rocks this week was that the game Rock-Paper-Scissors and other similar hand games are something like 4,000 years old.

A Cultural History of Rock-Papper-Scissors

I also really like it when something that seems simple and unworthy of research garners an article someplace fancy like The Atlantic with a journal-worthy title.

Check out this video for a quick overview of the history of RPS and some tips on how to increase your odds of winning — but don’t think you can come at me after watching it because I’m virtually unbeatable at Rock-Paper-Scissors. It’s one of my many weird gifts.

Okay, that’s it for this week’s edition! Thanks for being my rock this week. Ugh, no, that was awful — here, let’s end with this inspirational message from The Rock instead.