We are all builders

We are all builders at heart. Someone built this little monument at the Harmony Borax Works site in Death Valley National Park. It doesn't take much to build such a monument -- a few rocks and few minutes. Such a monument may last a day or a month. But just as we humans are included to build monuments, we are also inclined to destroy them: maybe the park service will determine that this one is not fitting its historic site. But I think there's a better chance someone will just push it over. If you drive I-80 across the vast Bonniville Salt Flats in Utah, you will find many little monuments like this one. Some are more one dimensional: rocks placed on the ground to spell a name or create an image; there were a few peace symbols the last time I drove by. Some people build beautiful sand castles at the beach. These are guaranteed to vanish with the next high tide. In the redwoods, people have carved their names in fallen redwood trees. These are more "memorials" than monuments. A name carved in a fallen redwood tree may still be visible 100 years later, for redwood trees decompose very slowly. I saw a fallen redwood once where early explorers had left their signatures.