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Believe it or not, when I was much younger (and dumber), I explored many old and abandoned silver and lead mines in the Alta and Big Cottonwood Canyon areas. I even worked deep in the Ontario Mine in Park City for a short time in the 70’s. On one occasion, while exploring the old Cardiff workings, thousands of feet below the mountains above Alta, with an old beloved friend who once worked in that sepulcher, he led me into a massive, carved-out room known as a stope. A stope is a high-grade ore body that is being mined or mined out. This empty remnant was maybe 40 feet tall and the size of a gym. This forgotten chasam, once bearing silver ore, was known as the Jewel Stope because the walls were encrusted with iron pyrite (fool’s gold) and other crystals that reflected our lights in countless directions. I was amazed that such a beautiful place could exist so deep beneath the earth. And I spent some time on another visit there, just lying on my back, with my lights out. I sensed the massive weight of thick darkness and a billion-year-old mountain bearing down on me, and in that indescribable desolation, I had a spiritual experience. I felt like God could still hear and touch me, even submerged in such a deep dungeon. I have often written about feeling God’s love in nature, but I was amazed to discover a similar emotion there. When I arose and climbed back out along wandering tunnels and shafts of that early 1900’s mine, I knew I would never forget that experience. How often do we find ourselves tangled in a similar void of darkness, feeling utterly alone or forgotten? I feel like so many beloved children of God are hopelessly trapped under a dark mountain of fear, hate, depression, indifference, racism, or blame. Blame for problems they never created or participated in. The fears of losing their homes, jobs, or worse yet, family and loved ones are beyond the depths of any earthen mine shaft. In a time when angry politicians fault our innocent brothers and sisters for their own and society’s troubles, I pray that we respond by reaching out to protect innocence. Even if all we possess is eager ears and gentle words of light, peace, and friendship. May we become the sturdy mountain of hope and rise to rescue without judgment our neighbors in need, regardless of their burdens. This is how we, with them, become the blessed. And this is how we emulate a purer, more divine love. My dearest friends, let us work to bear each other’s burdens as we strive to endure together. In our similar crystalline shells of epic beauty, and in this time of darkness, we can still discover and share treasures of lasting peace that will never be mined out. Know that you can always call on me! Your friend, Doug.
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