The story behind the photo: Gibbon Falls is what has
always struck me as your average Yellowstone waterfall. You see the
sign on the road, you stop by it, you ooh and ahh but aren't overwhelmned,
take your shot, and go on to the next shot. That's the plight of
this eighty-five foot waterfall. It is by Yellowstone standards woefully
unspectacular, and let's not pretend any differently. The lover of
Yellowstone is charmed by the park's unmistakable beauty and wonders, its
uniqueness, but true devotion comes when we consider what to do about the
mediocre. For those of us who truly love Yellowstone, we reflect
and puzzle over it. We learn about it. We seek to understand
Yellowstone as complete even as it contains isolated places taken in themselves
are not wonders at all. What do you do about Gibbon Falls, an unremarkable
waterfall in a land I take more remarkable than any place I have ever been?
Gibbon Falls becomes more remarkable as we consider its function in the
miracle of this land. The waters of the Gibbon River here flow over
a precipice, a precipice unlike that of many waterfalls in that the bottom
of this precipice is actually the bed of one of the Earth's largest volcano
beds--the Yellowstone caldera--which stretches sixty miles across.
Lewis Falls in southern Yellowstone also holds this distinction.
When you now see this water as flowing into a volcano bed lush with life,
you now see this waterfall as a most improbable quirk in the order of things.
Its mediocrity in itself contributes mightily to the beauty of the whole.
Those who know me know that this metaphor runs far deeper than Yellowstone
for me (and those who really know me will readily recognize I'm making
a reference to the problem of evil in the world), but on the other hand,
the deepness of the metaphor plays itself out concretely here in this land.
Yellowstone is so big that it drives you to consider its immensity, and
yet it is full of so many peculiarities that we are driven still to each
one. Thus, as we consider the individual feature and the universal
grandness, we have an infinite supply of richness with which to deal, so
much to love. None of these thoughts crossed my mind the day we took
this picture in 1998. As always, when we passed by Gibbon Falls,
I was looking forward to bigger and better things. Still, something
of the essence is found right here, and I cannot help loving what my heart
often feels little attraction for at first. And, part of the repulsion
is me--for this is still a very pretty place.
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