Grass Roots
A nine-year-old boy was lying face down
in the meadow. He'd ridden that morning from Eagle Rock with his parents
to Los Padres National Forest Central
Valley which prior to being converted to farmland,
was referred to as the "Serengetti of North America".
An hour from home the boy began to
catch sporadic glimpses out through the car window of bright patches that would
appear at the base of the hills in the distance. They eventually came off
of the main highway and followed a two-lane road into the foothills, coming to
a stop next to a blazing field of yellow that reached all the way to the
horizon.
The boy had always lived in the city
and was familiar only with the dull shades of green, gray and tan that cover
the hills of Northeast Los Angeles year round.
He could tell the brilliant effect glowing in the meadow before him was
temporary as nothing so intense could possibly be sustained.
After his initial excitement the boy's
interest in the scenery wore off and the long drive combined with the day's
heat made him sleepy. The lush grass looked so inviting he never thought
to ask for a blanket or a coat to lie on. He simply lowered himself down
into it with his face buried in the grass to block out the sunlight. He
managed to doze off for a while before the uneven ground brought him back
awake.
He inched downhill slightly until he
arrived at a spot where the contour of the ground was a better match with that
of his body. He didn't fall back asleep despite the comfort provided by
his better fit with the Earth. He could tell he probably wouldn't sleep again
until the car trip back home.
He opened his eyes and discovered his
face was about three inches from where the
the
soil. He couldn't remember ever having looked so closely at the ground
before and it was the novelty of it that kept him fixated on the dirt at
the base of the stalks of grass.
He slowly became aware that everything
in front of him was in motion. His eyes detected movement in the blades of
grass, dead leaves, twigs, pebbles and the loose top soil. There was a
slight breeze that morning but it wasn't the major source of the commotion he
was observing.
The six square inches he was focused on was overrun with
countless minute creatures. The soil and plants were inundated with ants,
beetles, bugs and an occasional worm. He was curious where the insects
had come from. The source of the dirt and gravel seemed obvious. He
was certain that with the help of erosion and gravity, most of the soil that he
was lying on had slid down into the valley from the surrounding hills.
The boy's notion of a fluid land form
was correct. All the matter in the known universe is in a constant state
of flux either being brought to form by some process or, once having done so,
immediately beginning to gradually disintegrate. Material produced by the
big bang and other super nova collided and gathered over eons to become
congealed by gravity and form the Earth. Until the core of our planet
cools, continents will migrate, tectonic plates will thrust up mountains and
ice ages and glaciers will tear them down.
The longer the boy stared at the six
square inches, the more things he saw. Many of the insects blended in with
the plants, remained still and simply weren't visible until they eventually
moved. In addition there were signs of life on an even smaller scale in
the form of mold and fungi on blades of grass and suspended in spider webs.
He determined that the plants and the soil combined to form a single
layer supporting the existence of various forms of life. He was more
overwhelmed by the density of plant and insect life he saw in those six square
inches than by the spread of wild flowers.
When he finally raised his head up to
look out across the field, he was startled when he realized the six square
inches he had been studying so closely, extended out to thousands of acres in
all directions. It was clear to the boy that his head had been buried in
a vast living carpet that draped the hills and meadows surrounding him as far
as he could see. It was so massive and so alive, he wasn't sure if the
exhilaration he felt came from wonder or fear.
