HOW GEOLOGY SAVED MY BACON

 

 

HOW GEOLOGY SAVED MY (JEWISH) BACON

 

Geology has served me well.

It has opened my eyes to numbers very large as in the concept of Deep Time, For example making the Earth is 4.6 billion years old.

Geology has also opened my eyes to numbers very small as in the distance between a mineral’s atomic planes, measured in Angstrom Units, where one Angstrom Unit is a hundred-millionth of a centimeter.

Having a feel for very big numbers and very small numbers makes your head spin and puts you beyond the rational, and leads you to matters spiritual. I am thankful for that.

With all this in mind and I know it sounds a little weird, but one Psalm in particular, number  91 has a personal geologic meaning for me. Allow me to give over some passages found in the Psalm for you to see how they relate:

2 - I will say of the LORD, who is my refuge and my fortress, my God, in whom I trust

10 - No harm will befall you, nor will a plague draw near to your tent.

11 - For He will command His angels on your behalf to guard you in all your ways.

13 - On a lion and a viper you will tread; you will trample the young lion and the serpent.

14 For he yearns for Me, and I shall rescue him; I shall fortify him because he knows My name.

15 - He will call upon Me and I will answer him; I am with him in trouble; I will rescue him and I bring him honor.

The personal geologic connection to Psalm 91 took place some  years ago. I was working for a mining consulting company. Our client was a large landowner.  His West Virginia property was being mined by an underground mining method that resulted in caving at the surface. Our task was to investigate the degree of surface subsidence.

It was one of those beautiful late autumn days in a West Virginia forest.  The morning air was crisp and cool. There were four of us. We moved as a team, noting irregularities caused by surface disturbances. As I walked, I heard a buzzing sound that I took for the last chirps of some sought of insect. As I stepped forward over what appeared to be a fallen log, the buzzing noise stopped, and I paused.  My field partner yelled at me: “Mike, Run!!”  

And you bet your bottom, I sure I did.  When I looked back, the fallen log, at least four feet long and thick as your leg, was moving and disappearing down a hole.  It was a huge diamond back rattler and I had just walked over it.  It was enough to soil your boxers. For this Jew, one of the immediate lessons to be learned was to be a little more “observant”.

I have always been a little slow. The Latin phrase is “ab Initio”, from the beginning. As an infant, in terms of walking and talking I was a reluctant starter.  Laughing, eating and drinking, soiling diapers were my things. It reached a point that my Grandfather, thinking me retarded, had my parents take me to the Pediatrician for an evaluation. Needless to say, the physician recommended patience: “He’s just a little slow; he will catch up”.

So it comes as no surprise that in terms of spirituality I needed a little more persuasion, An Angel must have said : “He’s just a little slow; he will catch up”. This point was brought home a few months later. This time we were working for a British company that wanted to purchase some coal reserves. In order to prove the quantity of coal reserves being offered it was necessary to determine the coal seam’s thickness. This task was to be accomplished by stationing a drill rig on top of a mountain ridge, and drilling through the strata including the coal seam which was being offered for sale.

Getting the drill rig to the top of the mountain required a road to be built, and on a West Virginia winter day my field partner and I started laying out the road, starting from ground level all the way to the top. It was tough going, requiring a lot of huffing and puffing, and despite the winter temperature, quite a bit of perspiration.

 

When I finally reached the top, I rested and looked around in order to catch my breath and get my bearings. It had snowed earlier in the morning and there in front of me on a patch of newly fallen snow was the largest paw prints that I had ever seen. They were huge.

And there just ahead of me along the ridge line was a cave which I guessed housed the creature that made those gigantic prints. I didn’t hang around to ask its name or check whether it was an old or young lion, but when I had a chance to gather my wits I thought back to Psalm 91, Verse 13 regarding lions and serpents, and the prerequisites for obtaining Divine Protection.

 It all came together and was good, very very good.