Limestone Mellow Harshed

Okay, it has been long enough after the loss of my limestone holey rock for me to register a distinct difference in my life.

But first I must back up to explain a theory I developed quite some time ago.

Back in the 80's development boom in Austin, spurred by Reaganomics, deregulation, and the pillaging of the S&L's, one of the things us lefties, democrats, and environmentalists worried about was that all the new people moving into Austin for the blood feast would be the wrong sorts of people. You know, weathy, materialistic, uptight, and Goddess-of-Liberty forbid, Republican-voting.

And it was true that the newcomers did have that profile, and some bad things happened to our city and continue to happen, like Les Amis being eaten by a Starbucks. But although we gre at a scarey rate, and attendant cost-of-living increases have made the slacker lifestyle a thing of the past, the political center square of Austin has just moved nary an inch. They were Reagan youth when they got here, now they eat mushrooms and play guitar at First Thursday like the rest of us.

I theorized that it was because of the limestone. You see, on the average a human beings bones are replaced every seven years. New calcium molecules have been installed, and others have eroded away. And the calcium comes from our water, the limestone of the Hill Country that dissolves into our drinking water. After seven years of living here, your bones are made out of Glen Rose and Edwards formation.

Think about how the limestone formed. It was when a shallow sea covered most of Texas. Over millenia, single celled creatures in the water died and drifted to the bottom, and gradually deposited their bodies to accumulate this massive limestone formation. A patient, longterm, peaceful process uninterrupted by cataclysmic events like riting or eathquakes. Shallow seas, not deep scary emotions of the big ocean.

I proposed that the limestone makes us peaceable, mellow Austinites, if we stay long enough to replace the calcium in our bones. And that the limestone itself has a natural, magical power to promote peace and calm. Over time we Austinites have come to resemble in temperament the Tonkawa Indians who lived here before us. They were so mellow that they were easily made into victims of genocide, between the white settlers and the Comanches who were displaced here by white settlers on the Plains. But some of what is recorded about them sounds familiar: how their women wore little or no clothing (it was hot) and how they loved games and spent lots of time in passtime activities (some settlers looked down on them as being lazy) and how they had a habit of showing up to parties and events to guff food and booze, and they loved to adorn their bodies with jewelry and tattooes. So us slackers, hackeysac-playing, underemployed, pierced and tatooed, going from swimming hole to keg party and barbeque are really reenacting Tonkawa lifestyle. Our bones are made out of the same mellow limestone as was theirs. I don't think it is such a bad approach to life at at, in fact it is what makes me proud to live in Austin and take part of it's laid-back freakiness. Limestone, soft enough to chew, thank you Kevin Gant.

Which now takes me back to my personal limestone holey rock that I wore for seven years around my neck until it decided to rejoin its kin at Krause Springs. I had thought of it being a talisman of my connection to the Barton Springs Edwards Aquifer and Barton Creek, which I fought so long and hard to preserve, and a direct connection to that first recharge feature where the water begins to flow underground towards Barton Springs. And as a connection to the UnderWorld realms of Faery, for holed stones are also known as Faery stones, and through the hole in a rock you are supposed to be able to see the faeries who are otherwise invisible.

But now I am seeing that my rock also served another natural magical function for me, and that was to absorb and mellow down strong emotions for me. Both those coming towards me from other people and those coming from me towards them. I feel very raw, as I come to grips with anger, disappointment, fear, and love unmediated by my mellow limestone shield. Friends, lovers, coworkers, be easy with me, and be forwarned if I throw out some strong stuff at you! There are really valid reasons I needed protection from harshness then, and now I get to learn how to do it myself. Those are the lessons to be learned before I wear a Faery Sone shield again.