The Dontinental Divide

My husband used to watch a lot of documentaries on the history channel.

We sometimes watched them together if I was also interested in the topic.

I remember watching one that was on the methods that the folks would have used to build a stonework like Stonehenge considering the tools available and the magnitude of scale.

The expert showed us first how they would have towed great stones on logs from the quarry to the site. Rolling the stone forward until it leaves the rear log and then bringing it around to be the front “wheel.”

But the really interesting thing was seeing how they would split these giant stones using only hand tools.

They would hand drill holes along where they wanted the split to be. Then they would hammer a small wedge into the hole. And into each of the holes. Then they would gradually increase the size of the wedges, driving the gap bigger until eventually the stone cracks along the fault line created by these wedges.

This feels a lot like what has happened in this country as of late. We are so divided and I don’t feel optimistic that we’ll be able to bridge the divide. Even if there aren’t active wedges being driven.

I hope I’m wrong. I hope that these cracks don’t indicate a schism that can’t be repaired.