Ere a Der 1
-
Upload
shabbeer-zafar -
Category
Documents
-
view
227 -
download
0
Transcript of Ere a Der 1
-
8/8/2019 Ere a Der 1
1/12
BRENT ENGLAR 1
OF LINCOLNANDTHE GRAND CANYONA S H O R T S T O R Y
by Brent Englar: September 2006
He glanced at his watch and then up at the sun
nearly five-thirty and still safely overhead. The
most recent sign put the canyon twenty-eight miles
away, giving him about ninety minutes of solid
daylight upon the rim, an hour-and-a-half in which tocomprehend some of that magnificence promised by
the very name. His boss had not been happy about the
detourhe was needed in California ASAPbut as he
had explained, the detour was unavoidable: it would be
un-American to pass within a days drive of the Grand
Canyon and not turn northward. His boss, who proudly
displayed a Support Our Troops bumper sticker on
his SUV, had no response for that one.
Even so, hed felt the pressure of times shifting
sands weighting him down the entire trip. The
guidebook recommended at least three weeks to explorethe twists and turns of historic Route 66; he was doing
it in seven days. Today had been the worst. The irony
-
8/8/2019 Ere a Der 1
2/12
2 OF L INCOLNANDTHE GRAND CANYON
as that his problems had begun with a pleasant
surprisepulling into the Arizona Welcome Center first
thing in the morning, he discovered that the change in
time zones had netted him two extra hours of daylight.Immediately the plan was revised, and todaywhich
was supposed to have featured
an extended stop at the Painted
Desert and Petrified Forest
culminating in an early rest
an hour south of the Grand
Canyonnow became Great
American National Parks Day.
In his defense, he couldnt imagine needing more than
a couple of minutes to get his fill of petrified wood,
and though his imagination was busy splattering thedesert with every color paint imaginable (including a
peculiarly vivid lime green), he convinced himself that
-
8/8/2019 Ere a Der 1
3/12
BRENT ENGLAR 3
the entire experience could be had for under an hour,
sixty minutes in which to snap a couple of pictures
before setting his sights on grander vistas.The trouble was, the moment he set foot down this
path of reasoning, a hundred quibbles circled round
and prevented him from turning back. And so it was
that at every stop along the way, whether he found
himself peering into the distance across parti-colored
badlands or simply passing through towns so tiny their
populations could be pinpointed to the last person, he
could not outrace the question: Why bother? Surely a
greater reason for this westward odyssey was needed
than merely to gather memoriesmemories which a
month from now would be less accessible than anyphotos he could download online. In theory it was nice
to be able to tell people that one has seen the national
treasures of the American Southwest, but in practice
few people even ask for such a report.
Consequently, as the sun began ever so slightly
to tilt on its downward arc to the Pacific, leaving one
town after another in the rearview mirror, he found
himself investing more and more significance into his
ultimate destination. He didnt know what was going to
happen when he finally stepped from his dusty car to
gaze upon the Grand Canyon, but he did know it wasgoing to be profound. He imagined God making a home
beneath one of the ridges, coming out from the caves
-
8/8/2019 Ere a Der 1
4/12
4 OF L INCOLNANDTHE GRAND CANYON
each evening at sunset to commune with whomeverhad been patient enough to seek Him there. And as
the miles ticked by his conviction only grew stronger.
There was precedent to support itonly five days earlier,
as the first leg of his trip
carried him through
Springfield, he had of course
made it a point to visit the
tomb of Abraham Lincoln.
As he passed families of
tourists attempting to corral
bucking children into commemorative portraits, hefancied himself traveling along a higher plane of being.
Something was drawing him toward Abraham Lincoln
-
8/8/2019 Ere a Der 1
5/12
BRENT ENGLAR 5
more compelling than
anything the local tourist
board could devise. Enteringthe tomb, he nodded
respectfully to the guard and
proceeded in silence around
several marbled corners before
the burial chamber with its great red memorial stone
announced its presence: ABRAHAM LINCOLN:
1809-1865, and just above and beyond, NOW HE
BELONGS TO THE AGES.
He stood before the chamber, reflecting on the
meaning of this single life that it should cultivate such
solemnity in death. If a random sampling of Americans,from the educated elites to the ones who gladly make
fools of themselves on late night TV shows, were asked
a single questionWho is the greatest American?
would not the name Abraham Lincoln be invoked
most of all? Why? Is it because he died in defense of
this nations most sacred ideals: Liberty in Service,
Unity in Pluralism? Is it because the blood shed in his
death helps to wash away the most evil of stains upon
this countrys soul? Is it simply because in his gangling
build and fatherly eyes we are reminded that every one
of us can be heroic?As he contemplated these questions and others he
could not quite put into words, he realized he was
-
8/8/2019 Ere a Der 1
6/12
6 OF L INCOLNANDTHE GRAND CANYON
crying. He moved to his left,
where on the wall framing
the vault were engraved the278 words that make up the
Gettysburg Address; he paused
to reread the famous first
sentence, luxuriating in its
epic cadences, its timeless diction, and the weeping
overwhelmed him.
That was five days ago. The days that followed were
pleasant enoughthe crossing of the Mississippi, the
pilgrimage through Oklahoma City, the wrong turns
and dead ends too numerous to count, when the road
disappeared beneath long, lonely drivewaysbutnothing had stirred his soul like those few moments in
the presence of immortality. He realized with a grin that
the most exciting moments occurred in the evenings,
as he raced the setting sun back to the interstate lest he
find himself lost in the twilight along the unforgiving
back roads of the American West. If all went according
to schedule, tomorrow evening would find him pulling
into Los Angeles at last to begin his new life in a blur
of discount furniture shopping and preparation for the
workweek ahead. His pulse quickened and his right
foot pressed down harder on the gas pedal as hereviewed the little he actually knew about the job, his
imagination leapfrogging ahead to the hundreds of
-
8/8/2019 Ere a Der 1
7/12
BRENT ENGLAR 7
tasks still in need of completion. And when time slowed
enough for him to carve out his tiny niche what then?
How would he fill it? Whom would he share it with?
And so he was left with one final sunset and the
Grand Canyon. The road never veered, unraveling in
an endless line before him through windswept fields
and now slender pine forests, on past the entrance
plaza (where he was pleased to discover he had exactly
enough money in his wallet for admission and not a
dollar more), before finally slowing to catch its breathin the main parking lot. He turned off the ignition and
looked around, carefully blocking out any premature
-
8/8/2019 Ere a Der 1
8/12
8 OF L INCOLNANDTHE GRAND CANYON
sightings of the canyon through the surrounding trees,
only to determine where along the rim the fewest
tourists were gathered. It was surely futile to drive until
he found a wholly secluded spothe doubted whetherany such place even existed, and besides, along the
western horizon the day was already blushing orange-
red, as though ashamed to be leaving him when he had
only just arrived.
The encroaching sunset was enoughhe decided
catharsis would occur as easily in a crowd as in solitudeand walked slowly toward the rim. The first traces of the
canyon appeared in shadow against the sky like painted
-
8/8/2019 Ere a Der 1
9/12
BRENT ENGLAR 9
beehives, and each step filled in more of the picture until
at last he was standing no more than six inches from the
edge; he noticed a flight of rocky steps leading to a ledge
some three or four feet below, comfortably secludedfrom passersby, and picked his way down before
allowing himself his first unobstructed view.
Of this view what more can
I say? If you have seen it for
yourself, you know. If not, any
description I could offer would nobetter serve you than a painting
the blind. Let it suffice for me to
-
8/8/2019 Ere a Der 1
10/12
10 OF L INCOLNANDTHE GRAND CANYON
say it is miraculousif God does in fact need a home
on this earth, He need look no further than that ancient
stone foundation.All this passed through his mind as he sat on his
ledge, yet no tears followed. A slight panic began to
shiver its way down his spine; he took a deep breath
and looked once more into the canyon. Even in that
short time the shadows had lengthened dramatically
or perhaps not. Perhaps he was simply seeing more
deeply into each crevice, each textured variation in
hue. He heard the wind slapping against the cliff faces
belowthere had been no such sound along the
rimwhere a piece of rock jutted out above the canyon
-
8/8/2019 Ere a Der 1
11/12
BRENT ENGLAR 11
floor in the shape of a teepee. The house of God.
Or Lincoln. He thought of his trip, book-ended now by
two pillars of America, its greatest man and monument.And here he was in the middle.
He shivered again, but from the breeze this time. The
teepee receded into shadow. Here was no place for Lincoln
after all. Better to keep him in his own stone house, a
monument to life and death but not to eternity. This place
-
8/8/2019 Ere a Der 1
12/12
12 OF L INCOLNANDTHE GRAND CANYON
upon which he sat and gazed mattered not for anything
any maneven the greatest manhad done or would one
day do. It was majestically unconcerned with the doings ofmen. It had no answer for their questions.
Sitting on the ledge, then, the man ceased to
question. When he had absorbed his fill he stood up,
dusted off the seat of his pants, and climbed back up
to the rim. There was still daylight remaining as he got
into his car and drove south to the interstate.