Post 4 - Rock-solid isn't the strongest

Two maxims:

Maxim one: The Earth we stand upon is rock solid, and because of that, we can count on it.

Maxim two: It’s important to know who you are. That way, people can count on you, and you can count on yourself.

The two maxims are connected. We value constancy because we view it as a sign of dependability and strength. To be a rock is the ultimate aspiration of many men around the world because, even in progressive societies, men are expected to exhibit unwavering strength. To be unshakeable and unmovable through the toughest of circumstances is the ideal we’ve come to strive for, whether we do it consciously or not. In our minds, the Earth and the land on its surface serve as the metaphors for this unshakeable strength.

This is the ideal we have established for ourselves, but what should our ideal really be? Let’s take each of the maxims and see how rock-solid they really are.

The first maxim is true in our day-to-day experience. We walk on the earth, drive on it, take trains and land planes on it. We can do this because it is solid. We expect it to remain where it is and support our weight, and it does exactly that. So, it must be solid, constant, unmoving. Right? Right?

Hverfjall Volcano, which erupted 2,500 years ago and is approximately 1km in diameter

Here’s one piece of the Earth that would beg to disagree. This is Hverfjall, which erupted some 2500 years ago near Myvatn, Iceland. Molten rock made its way from the interior of the Earth to the surface, spewing lava and forming a mountain where before there had been none. Was this a spectacular event? You bet. Was it a unique event? Not by a long shot.

There are 130 such volcanic mountains, not in the world, but in Iceland alone. In fact, the entire island of Iceland rose up out of the sea this way around 33 million years ago, when an eruption finally raised its peak above the surface. Iceland has not stopped either—its most recent eruption at the time of the writing of this article began on July 10th, 2023.

Iceland is not the only island that formed this way—volcanic islands are prolific and are still forming. The Big Island of Hawaii formed a mere 300,000 years ago. The age of the Earth is estimated at 4.5 billion years, meaning both Iceland and Hawaii were born in the last 1% of the timeline of Earth’s existence. Not to belabor the point, but the nation of Tonga just got a new island addition last September (2022).

The divide between the Eurasian and North American tectonic plates

You may feel as though I’ve drifted away from the Iceland example. And I have, but only to tee up this segue about continental drift. Two of the Earth’s main tectonic plates are drifting apart from each other in Iceland. Not only is new land being formed, but old land is also literally moving apart, and you can see the rift with your own two eyes. So, the Earth moves. It is awfully slow on human timescales, but that drift (that is to say, movement and change) is constant and dependable. Contrary to human perception, when you consider the Earth's movement on the timescale of its age rather than that of a human, it is moving at a fairly rapid pace.

The land on the surface is not the only part of the Earth that moves. If you dig down, small layers of the earth are composed of flowing liquid, and it’s this liquid that generates the protective barrier you can read a little bit about in this post. The Cliff's Notes version is this—if the Earth were unmoving, it would not take long for the Sun to strip away its atmosphere and make it about as habitable as the Moon.

The Earth, then, isn’t the constant, reliable old object we think of it as. And that morphing, changing, and shifting is absolutely necessary to keep us alive. Now that we have determined that the Earth is an unsettlingly inconstant object, how do we think about the second maxim, “it’s important to know who you are.”? Should we still aim to be like a rock?

Bedrock serves as the foundation for tall skyscrapers. Stones form very strong walls and floors of buildings. A jutting rock on a cliff face serves as a perch point for a mama bird and her chicks. Each and every one of these lovely qualities about stone reveals a secret, though—rocks are only special when co-opted for a purpose. What happens to rock not being used for a purpose? Give it enough time, and something as simple as flowing water will erode the rock to nothing. And sure, rocks can also be spewed out of volcanoes in the form of lava, but if your goal in becoming a rock in the first place was to be solid and unmovable, to be the same in all circumstances, being liquified and flung from the mouth of a volcano does not help with your goal.

I think there’s a reason we call the people who make a big impact in the world “movers and shakers.” They don’t just sit still. They’re not static, inert objects. And the Earth is very much what it is because it, too, is not a static, inert object.

That’s not to say that the Earth is pure chaos, either. It is reliable and dependable in so many ways. There are constants and constantly cyclical events that are part of the Earth’s reliability. There are the seasons. There’s the (mostly) solid ground beneath our feet. There’s the protection from the Sun’s hazardous rays. But there are not very many constants and cyclicals that would be reliable without movements and changes that are very much a part of the Earth’s nature. The rain, for instance, which we expect and upon which we depend, comes as a result of changes and movement in the atmosphere.

If you still think it’s important to know who you are, I hope I’ve at least disabused you of the aspiration to be an inert stone. Be like the Earth. Make it rain. Build islands from the ocean floor. Shield those under your care from cosmic rays. You can be reliable and dependable, surprising and dynamic, all at the same time. A rock is good for a few purposes, the Earth with all its dynamism is good for so much more. Rock-solid isn't the strongest.

So, get to moving. Get to changing and morphing. It’s okay to know who you are today and to know yourself as someone markedly different tomorrow. It's okay to be complex. Remember, the Earth is all of these things, and it harbors life! You will not be unreliable if you give yourself permission to be something other than a rock; on the contrary, you will be opening up an entire world of things which you can affect for the better.