Media Never Die: Word Stones

The oldest writing in the world might be an engraved stone tablet found in Bulgaria, dating from around 5000 BCE.  That’s seven thousand year old.

This comes to mind because of a visit a few years ago to one of those gift and home decor stores in the mall. If you shop and pay attention, even a little, over the years you notice items that are perennials, along with items that seem to suddenly appear or disappear from one year to another.

Items that suddenly appeared were rocks with words engraved on them. Some have just a single word – Peace, Faith, Hope – while others manage to include entire quotes or Bible passages. Some are real rocks (more expensive), others are cast in (sort of) stone-like resin (cheaper). Sizes range from pocket-sized to table-sized to garden-sized. They of course come in a variety of decorator colors. They are known by a variety of names: word stones, engraved stones, garden stones, etc.

I’ve never purchased one, and never received one as a gift (and probably never will now). But I have to say that as I stood there, holding some of them in my palm, reading the words, something elemental happened. Obviously, this is in part because engraved stones have a very deep meaning, as our way of memorializing the dead. In other circumstances, though, we usually don’t go around engraving our thoughts on stones, carrying them around, or throwing them at each other to communicate. But people did in the past, sometimes people who mattered (I’m thinking here of Moses, not Fred Flintstone). I felt that.

And then was the thought: media never die. They evolve, they may lose some of their significance and primacy (which they may regain), they may even end up as a gift store novelty. But they survive. For seven thousand years. It appears that writing on stone will always be here. So for those who wonder, as I sometimes do, what will become of this medium or that, remember the word stones.