Keeping with the blog theme here, let’s talk about the unexpected. Over Labor Day Derek and I got some tourist action in down in Rapid City, SD. Tonight I’d like to share some photography and thoughts from our time at the monuments.
I don’t think the four men featured in this monument would have ever expected to be immortalized in this over the top fashion. If you had told George or Tom that their face would be larger than life, carved in a mountain…I dare say they would not have believed you. These were men who did their job, who made their lives count. I don’t think any of them “saw it coming.” The impact their lives would have on our nation, the lasting affects their efforts would have on the generations to follow.
So often we can’t tell how our lives will ripple into the generations to follow. We cannot predict the circumstances that will come our way. We can only face the unexpected with a courageous heart, solid values, and a compassionate soul. Hoping to navigate in such a way that we live a life worthy of remembrance…even if we aren’t carved in a mountain.
Call me corny, but I’ve wanted to lay eyes on this rock for the better part of my life. I thought it would be simply breath taking. And it is.
If you’ve never seen it, don’t believe people when they tell you it’s hokey. It’s faces carved into a mountain. In case you didn’t know…hokey is not a synonym for awesome. This is awesome.
During our time in Rapid City we also went to the Crazy Horse Monument. {It’s where that awkward photo moment took place. } Like Rushmore, it’s a memorial sculpture in a mountain. Which is amazing because it is a project totally funded privately. Generations of family members have worked to preserve this land and move forward with the project. It’s been going since the 1940’s. Someday it will {hopefully} look like this scale model. You know how they “carve it”? Dynamite. Seriously, I’m not kidding. They are carving a person in a mountain with explosives. It blew my mind. {I love puns.}
Amy
