July 6 2013, 6:59PM

How long has this chunk of petrified wood been sitting here in northern Arizona? Definitely long before Arizona was a state, long before the United States was a country, long before any of those artificial political boundaries had been mapped. The most probable reason it would not be here for just as long would be a human hauling it off to plop down in their suburban yard. Presumably that will not happen, since this sits within the boundaries of a national park, where any collecting is forbidden. As I exited the park in my pickup truck, I had to stop so a ranger could peer in the truck bed to ensure I had not done any rockhounding of my own.

From across the ocean, I am watching what is going on in the States right now with horror, wondering how people can continue to support that man and his vile hateful stupidity. Will this chunk of petrified wood continue to sit here for an equally long time, or will we have another Joshua Tree-style disaster under that man’s irresponsible “leadership”? Will someone end up hauling it off, tossing it in their front yard, with a permanently installed Orange Man sign aside it? (That is not conjecture, that is reality: the neighborhood we lived in on the north side of Phoenix had a yard with a permanent installation of the now-iconic sans-serif sign. I am sure it is not the only one. A few streets over, a “Fuck Biden” flag flew on a tall flagpole, with the obvious intention all would see it, and people proudly wore t-shirts with huge letters spelling out “Fuck your feelings”. Yet when my husband and I, a gay couple, had the gall to simply hold hands in public, we were considered the ones behaving badly, that was something children should not be exposed to.)

It is difficult to go back and place myself on the date I took this picture, not knowing what was coming, not only that hideous man’s sad rise to power (self-serving power, not leadership, nor the capacity to use all that power for good), but a pandemic resulting in much, much more preventable death than necessary thanks to the vacuum of leadership (vacuous of leadership?), and the too early death of my only sibling to cancer, among other things. On the upside, I also had no idea in a couple years I would meet the man I am now married to, and that today we would be living in Barcelona with our dog, where we can hold hands in public without regular harassment. But looking at this chunk of wood, trying to imagine how long it has been here, and everything that has happened on its watch, puts things in a longer perspective.

Pondering this chunk of minerals oddly sitting alone, engenders thoughts of the unknowability of the future and the often futility of understanding the past. The Future: How much longer will it sit here? Will we have another Joshua Tree free-for-all, so some gun nut can use it for target practice, or will someone else haul it off for their private collection which at least would preserve it instead of willfully destroying it? The Past: How did this one large chunk end up sitting singly in a large area devoid of other pieces of petrified wood? Shouldn’t there be other parts of the trunk, and other smaller chunks scattered around? All those things I mentioned in the previous paragraph, some may have been hopes and wants, others were definitely not, but the day I took this picture, I had no way of knowing any of them would happen. This all loops back around to that same old cliche: seize the day, do not put things off to procrastinate-overthink, ignore the naysayers, live your life.