A Stone's Throw: The Enduring Nature of Myth

Posted Sun, 2006-03-26 15:23 by rosslaird
a stone's throw

A Stone's Throw begins as Ross A. Laird hikes with his father up a remote B.C.mountain in search of a mythic stone. He finds it in an icy river, packs it home, and spends a year sculpting it in his shop. As he works, Laird discovers why stones have always been viewed as foundations of community, symbols of the self, and embodiments of sacred wisdom. He examines the persistence of this powerful symbolism as his hands shape the stone. And he discovers that despite our general ignorance of mythological history, the fables of our ancestors are still imbued with great power. Recounting archaic myths and tales from his own family, linking together the essential religions of the West -- all with stones at their core -- Laird illuminates the deep unity among spiritual traditions that are, in the contemporary world, perpetually at war.

A Stone's Throw is about the weaving together of stories by which we construct our lives, individually and collectively. Laird explores the forces that lead both Jews and Muslims to revere the foundation stone of the Temple Mount in Jerusalem, the Taliban to destroy stone carvings of Buddha, terrorists to attack the World Trade Center. As he crafts a volcanic rock into a piece of sculpture, Laird peels back the facade of the present to reveal the contemporary world as a place where the past is forever working out its unfinished dreams.