Article October 3, 1988 Issue

Red rocks and good mortar

Are prayer and study just for when we're in trouble?

Lucinda Baker Greiner

A Pile of red rocks had stood in a remote corner of our yard since we'd bought the property. They had been excavated when the house was built, but never hauled away.

One morning last summer, just down the road, I saw a man blasting and cutting this same red sandstone out of the hillside. He explained that he was building a house for the owner of the lot. Aware of an opportunity to be rid of our own rock pile, I offered it to him. The stonemason courteously declined the gift, though our rocks were from the layer of sandstone he was using for the house. This particular stone, he said, beautiful as it is, begins at once to erode and deteriorate if left exposed to weather. The freshly cut blocks had to be used at once, bound together and disciplined with the use of good mortar. Otherwise, they would weaken and crack.

He mentioned several red sandstone buildings in a nearby town. They were more than a hundred years old and showed no deterioration whatever, because they had been cut carefully and joined with a proper mortar. "And they will stand for centuries," he declared with authority and a smile.

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