somewhere in Colorado- photo J.G.

"Late at night, tossing sleeplessly in his bunk, the boy kept wondering. The mountain was not one great big solid rock as it appeared from below. It was a million, trillion pieces all held together without cement: some hard, some soft, in all shapes and patterns, burned brown on the outside and gray inside, some with a purplish streak, but all with a preponderant delicate pink tinge against the snow. But it had lost its benign personality. It reflected a monstrous, impersonal force that pressed him from all sides. he was suddenly, mightily afraid."
"'What keeps the Peak from fallin' down on us?' He blurted out in darkness. 'I mean-"'
"From Abe's bunk came the usual silence. Jake let out another snore. But suddenly from across the room came two testy words in answer. 'Isostatic equilibrium!' And then a moment later, 'God Almighty, this time of night!'"
"Isostatic Equilibrium: it haunted him for years, both the phrase and its ultimate meaning. And not until long afterward did he realize that each of us has his own vocabulary for even Him who made the Word."
"Thus he came to know that high realm of rock, the peak itself. Week after week the snowcap steadily receded. By day the drifts melted and trickled down into the cracks and crevices. By night the water froze and wedged the rocks apart. One heard, if only in his imagination, an eternity of sharp reports and booming explosions when the boulders finally split asunder. But to all this expansion and contraction, the rhythmic pulse of constant change, the peak remained immutable, bigger than the sum of its parts."
-Frank Waters, from "The Colorado" 1946.