Hey Kids,

The current fashion trend, as it would seem, is to have ear buds filling your ear holes.

Everyone is not an exaggeration either; it’s everyone. Either for a phone or a music player, the small ear devices are as important to wear when leaving the house as one’s underwear.  I’m not immune either; I plead guilty to the practice, but like most, I can justify my own reasons.

At my desk is where I’m the guiltiest. While staring at an Excel spreadsheet or scanning through my tasks lists, I like to have a little auditory stimulation. My choice, however, is slightly different than most. I listen to documentaries on YouTube.

My interests are all over the place. I like to keep myself educated on new fishing techniques and political news, fake or otherwise. Other popular topics include the latest on climate change, space exploration, or WWII history. I would be dishonest to not admit that a good portion of my time is spent on weird subjects too, such as ghosts, aliens, and Bigfoot.

Recently I’ve delved into a more grounded topic in geology. How was the Grand Canyon formed? How were the Rockies formed? What did the earth used to look like?

Sending time over the past few years, I’ve found myself lost in this subject. To look at the Grand Canyon or Canyonlands National Park, I’ve wondered how they were formed. So I listen and I learn. I learn of Ice ages, inland seas, and tectonic plates. I see the fossils recovered, the rock layers identified, and the erosion process reveled. It all makes good sense except for the time element.

The lengths of time to cause the necessary effects boggles my mind. The millions or billions of years it requires to make significant change seems to be impossible. I mean even just one million years; how long is that really? My head spins and churns trying to imagine it or come up with something with which to give me perspective on how long that could be.

And then I remember the last time I went shopping with my wife, and it all comes into focus.

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