Everybody
needs a rock. I’m sorry for people who don’t have a rock for a friend. I’m sorry for people who only have
CARS, COMPUTERS, RICH HOUSES, EXCELLENT JOB, HI-TECH STUFF, AND THINGS LIKE THAT – if they don’t have a rock for
a friend. That’s why I am giving them ten rules for finding a rock …..
Not
just any rock. I mean a special rock that you find yourself and keep as long as you can – maybe forever. If somebody
says, “What’s special about that rock?” don’t even tell them. I don’t.
Nobody
is supposed to know what’s special about another person’s rock. All right. Here are the rules:
Rule number one:
If
you can, go to a mountain made out of nothing but a hundred million small shiny beautiful roundish rocks. But if you can’t,
anyplace will do. Even an alley. Even a sandy road.
Rule number two:
When
you are looking at rocks don’t let mothers or fathers or sisters or brothers or best friends or even anybody talk to
you. You should choose a rock when everything is quiet. Don’t let dogs bark at you or bees buzz at you. But if they
do, DON”T WORRY. (The worst thing you can do is go rock hunting when you are worried.)
Rule number three:
Bend
over. More. Even more. You may have to sit on the ground with your head almost touching the earth. You have to look a rock
right in the eye. Otherwise, don’t blame me if you can’t find a good one.
Rule number four:
Don’t
get a rock that is too big. You’ll be always sorry. It won’t fit your hand right and it won’t fit your pocket.
A rock is as big as an apple is too big. A rock as big as a horse is MUCH too big.
Rule number five:
Don’t choose a rock that is too small. It will only be easy to lose or a mouse might eat it, thinking that it
is a seed. (Believe me, that happened to a boy in the state of Arizona.)
Rule number six:
The
size must be perfect. It has to feel easy in your hand when you close your fingers over it. It has to feel jumpy in your pocket
when you to run. Some people touch a rock a thousand times a day. There aren’t many things that feel as good as a rock
– if the rock is perfect.
Rule number seven:
Look
for the perfect colour. That could be a sort of gray with bits of silvery shine in it. Some rocks that look brown are really
other colours, but you only see them when squint and when the sun is right. Another way to see colours is to dip your rock
in a clear mountain stream – if one is passing by.
Rule number eight:
The shape of the rock is up to you. (There is a girl in Alaska who only likes flat rocks. Don’t ask me why. I like them lumpy.) The things to remember
about shapes is this: Any rock looks good with a hundred other rocks around it on a hill. But if your rock is going to be
special it should look good by itself in the bathtub.
Rule number nine:
Always
sniff a rock. Rocks have their own smells. Some people (those who are still like a little kids) can tell by sniffing whether
a rock come from the middle of the earth or from an ocean or from a mountain where wind and sun touched it every day for a
million years. You’ll find out that grown-ups can’t tell these things. Too bad for them. They just can’t
smell as well as other people can.
Rule number ten:
Don’t
ask anybody to help you choose. I’ve seen a lizard pick one rock out of a desert full of rocks and go sit there alone.
I’ve seen a snail pass up twenty rocks and spend all day getting to the one it wanted. You have to make up your own
mind. You’ll know.
All
right, that’s ten rules. If you think of any more write them down yourself. I’m going out to play a game that
takes just me and one rock to play.
I happen to have a rock here in my hand ……
:) ;)
