Building on stone worries sand quite a bit. Stone is simply much more popular when a building is meant to stand for a longer while. Sand, after all, is only the result of ground-up stone. In principle. But all that grinding has stripped sand of its consistency and its credibility. Full stop.
Stone, on the other hand, has gained enormously in attributes and in approval. Antiquity always built on stone. The Romans didn’t even shy away from roads made of hewn stone. Nor did they duck under viaducts. Masterful architectural remnants of a bygone culture still stand firm around the place.
You can build on stone.
Even literature takes a liking to the stumbling stone. Because there are texts that, from the very start and even before any editor laid eyes on them, were carved into it. Texts for eternity in the stone wall of history.
Stones made quite a name for themselves once they began to reflect. Stones such as rubies, diamonds, and similar compressed stone formations. These glittery things have managed to make an expensive name for themselves, especially among the beauties of the celebrity world and the rest of it. Diamonds stand right at the front of the line when it comes to the bonds of friendship with women.
Five stones catapulted themselves, rock and rolling, into eternity. To many it seems as if there had never not been a world without the Rolling Stones. Keith especially was always already there, and probably watched over the Creator’s shoulder during the Seven-Day-World-Building, laughing a smoky, hearty laugh. Five lads from England who showed: a stone can grind itself into a diamond if you let it roll long enough. Which brings me back to the actual stone of this morning.
But this morning I had gotten stuck on the word foundation stone. Actually, some of my synapses had picked out the term right after I briefly opened my eyes. The foundation stone is the first event there is to celebrate with any building. A stone. A press invitation. A few shovels. And a handful of more or less prominent faces from politics and business bend over a stone that is now to be buried under a storm of flashbulbs. On this stone the rest of the 198-storey-forming building is meant to stand. If that’s not a reason for celebration, what is?
My foundation stones were a few record stores and their opening day. There was no press and no politicians, true, but my team and I stood in the store, tired but eager. Who would be the first customer, I wondered? Which record would be the first to be carried out of the store? After weeks of intense work, the store now stood spick and span and well stocked, waiting to develop into a business success. We never buried a stone, mind you, but we did bury plenty of money to teach the thing to walk.
Yes, there is often a reason — or several — to lay a stone. If the ground is even visible, all the better.
That doesn’t make us Stone Age people.
But founders.
