The old folks used to say that if snow ever lay on the ground for three days, it was awaiting more. Such was definitely the case this past week here in east Tennessee. The initial blanket of snow we received seven days ago is still with us - only it is now buried under a second layer of ice and snow that arrived three days later.
What was originally a wonderful adventure (as per my previous post) quickly deteriorated into a bit of cabin fever. But after five days, we were finally able to venture forth from the house and get to the store to replenish our dwindling supplies.
By day six, we grew even bolder. My son, who lives next door, called and asked if we would like to try and take all the grandsons south into the next county where a famous cave is located. Seeing that the roads had been well salted, and that all we had to do was to navigate our icy driveway to access them, we jumped at the chance.
Two hours later, a party of twelve pulled into the parking lot and made our way into “The Lost Sea”, formerly known as Craighead Caverns, a few miles outside of Madisonville, Tennessee. We enjoyed a one hour and fifteen minute trip through the caverns, culminating in a boat trip on the United States' largest (and the world's second largest) non-subglacial underground lake.
At 800 feet long, 220 feet wide, the 4.5 acre lake is quite impressive. It sits some 140 feet below the earth’s surface. Moreover, above the level of the lake, several other caverns also exist. These have yielded an abundance of archaeological data, pointing to the cave’s habitation by prehistoric beasts, Native Americans, Civil War soldiers, and Depression Era moonshiners. I highly recommend the tour.
But what struck me the most was the solitude of the place. At one point in the tour, the guide asked us to stand still. Then she turned off the electric lights. Thereupon, we experienced the darkest blackness imaginable. Not only was there no light; there was absolutely no sound whatsoever. It was the epitome of solitude.
But what impressed me the most was the temperature. It was 58 degrees. Now, while that might sound a bit chili, remember that when we existed our vehicles in the parking lot to walk into the visitor’s center, the thermometer was hovering right around 18 degrees, with a wind chill of around 7 degrees.
We had been warned ahead of time not to take coats, as we would likely wind up shedding and carrying them. And the guide was right! By the end of the tour, I was down to a shirt and was quite comfortable.
It was explained to us in the large cavern known as “The Council Chamber” that Chief Craighead and other Cherokee Nation chiefs used the room year round for councils and rituals. That was because, no matter how cold it got outside (and that has been recorded be as low as minus 25 degrees), it stayed warm inside. Likewise, no matter how hot it got outside (which has been recorded as high as 106 degrees), it always stayed comfortable inside. Compared to -25 degrees and +106 degrees, 58 degrees is sitting pretty!
The more I thought about this, the more I realized that it was really a metaphor for life. After all, Shakespeare had Prince Hamlet bemoan “the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune” that so often form “a sea of troubles” with which we must each contend all throughout life.
How right he was! For who among us does not suffer the vagaries and vicissitudes of life? Whether it be the white hot heat of some person we have inadvertently offended or the bitter coldness of some other individual whose expectations we have unfortunately failed to meet, we very often find ourselves exposed to the excessive and varied extremes with which others can treat us.
Little wonder, then, that that the words of Rudyard Kipling, in his well-known poem, “IF”, also came to mind…
If you can keep your head when all about you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you,
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,
But make allowance for their doubting too;
If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,
Or being lied about, don’t deal in lies,
Or being hated, don’t give way to hating,
And yet don’t look too good, nor talk too wise:
If you can dream—and not make dreams your master;
If you can think—and not make thoughts your aim;
If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster
And treat those two impostors just the same;
If you can bear to hear the truth you’ve spoken
Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,
Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken,
And stoop and build ’em up with worn-out tools:
If you can make one heap of all your winnings And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss, And lose, and start again at your beginnings
And never breathe a word about your loss;
If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew To serve your turn long after they are gone, And so hold on when there is nothing in you
Except the Will which says to them: ‘Hold on!’
If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,
Or walk with Kings—nor lose the common touch,
If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you,
If all men count with you, but none too much;
If you can fill the unforgiving minute With sixty seconds’ worth of distance run,
Yours is the Earth and everything that’s in it And - which is more - you’ll be a Man, my son!
Apt advice from a wise sage! For here, we have even more wisdom from one who, as a part of prior generations, can be considered one of “the old folks”.
After all, is not the phrase “If you can keep your head when all about you are losing theirs” perfectly pictured by remaining a consistently cool 58 degrees inside when temperatures in the world all around you are fluctuating back and forth between tremendous extremes?!
Of course, Kipling is not the only member of previous generations to recognize this. Nor was he the first. Consider, for instance, the wisdom proffered by the writer of the Old Testament Biblical Book of First Kings, who tells us about the Prophet Elijah.
Like the Patriarch Moses before him, he found himself entrenched in a fissure within the rock upon Mt. Horeb in Sinai. Thereafter, there occurred, first a strong wind, then an earthquake, and finally an intense fire, all outside. And yet, in all of these things, he was safe and secure and unharmed.
More to the point, he was reminded by all these things that he was serenely ensconced within the protective hand of Almighty God!
Given all this, I have concluded that being invisible and obscure 140 feet below ground with God is a far, far better thing than being visible and observable above ground in the eyes of the world! For while the world makes its conclusions about us based on mere surface observations, it is God, and God alone, Who judges us solely on our innermost selves.
And surely, He Who is “the same yesterday, today, and tomorrow” values an “even keel” over an “all-over-the map” approach to life!
One last thought… Back in the day, the so-called “Book of World Records” listed the “Lost Sea” not only as the world’s largest underground lake, but also as bottomless! In the day and age of the internet, both of these claims have since been disproven. At its deepest point, the Lost Sea is now known to be 75 feet deep. More to the point, it is not the world’s largest underground lake. It seems that one in Dragon's Breath Cave, in Namibia, Africa rightfully holds that title.
Still, the Lost Sea is a significant entity. And its truths are evident. What is more, I, for one, am so glad that my family and I dropped in!
POEM SOURCE:
https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/46473/if---.
ATTRACTION SOURCES:
https://thelostsea.com/;
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Craighead_Caverns.
SEE ALSO:
https://www.plantmaps.com/en/us/climate/extremes/f/tennessee-record-high-low-temperatures;
https://poets.org/poem/hamlet-act-iii-scene-i-be-or-not-be.
SCRIPTURES:
https://biblehub.com/niv/1_kings/19.htm.
https://biblehub.com/niv/exodus/33.html;
https://biblehub.com/hebrews/13-8.htm;
https://www.openbible.info/topics/being_calm_under_stress.
What was originally a wonderful adventure (as per my previous post) quickly deteriorated into a bit of cabin fever. But after five days, we were finally able to venture forth from the house and get to the store to replenish our dwindling supplies.
By day six, we grew even bolder. My son, who lives next door, called and asked if we would like to try and take all the grandsons south into the next county where a famous cave is located. Seeing that the roads had been well salted, and that all we had to do was to navigate our icy driveway to access them, we jumped at the chance.
Two hours later, a party of twelve pulled into the parking lot and made our way into “The Lost Sea”, formerly known as Craighead Caverns, a few miles outside of Madisonville, Tennessee. We enjoyed a one hour and fifteen minute trip through the caverns, culminating in a boat trip on the United States' largest (and the world's second largest) non-subglacial underground lake.
At 800 feet long, 220 feet wide, the 4.5 acre lake is quite impressive. It sits some 140 feet below the earth’s surface. Moreover, above the level of the lake, several other caverns also exist. These have yielded an abundance of archaeological data, pointing to the cave’s habitation by prehistoric beasts, Native Americans, Civil War soldiers, and Depression Era moonshiners. I highly recommend the tour.
But what struck me the most was the solitude of the place. At one point in the tour, the guide asked us to stand still. Then she turned off the electric lights. Thereupon, we experienced the darkest blackness imaginable. Not only was there no light; there was absolutely no sound whatsoever. It was the epitome of solitude.
But what impressed me the most was the temperature. It was 58 degrees. Now, while that might sound a bit chili, remember that when we existed our vehicles in the parking lot to walk into the visitor’s center, the thermometer was hovering right around 18 degrees, with a wind chill of around 7 degrees.
We had been warned ahead of time not to take coats, as we would likely wind up shedding and carrying them. And the guide was right! By the end of the tour, I was down to a shirt and was quite comfortable.
It was explained to us in the large cavern known as “The Council Chamber” that Chief Craighead and other Cherokee Nation chiefs used the room year round for councils and rituals. That was because, no matter how cold it got outside (and that has been recorded be as low as minus 25 degrees), it stayed warm inside. Likewise, no matter how hot it got outside (which has been recorded as high as 106 degrees), it always stayed comfortable inside. Compared to -25 degrees and +106 degrees, 58 degrees is sitting pretty!
The more I thought about this, the more I realized that it was really a metaphor for life. After all, Shakespeare had Prince Hamlet bemoan “the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune” that so often form “a sea of troubles” with which we must each contend all throughout life.
How right he was! For who among us does not suffer the vagaries and vicissitudes of life? Whether it be the white hot heat of some person we have inadvertently offended or the bitter coldness of some other individual whose expectations we have unfortunately failed to meet, we very often find ourselves exposed to the excessive and varied extremes with which others can treat us.
Little wonder, then, that that the words of Rudyard Kipling, in his well-known poem, “IF”, also came to mind…
If you can keep your head when all about you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you,
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,
But make allowance for their doubting too;
If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,
Or being lied about, don’t deal in lies,
Or being hated, don’t give way to hating,
And yet don’t look too good, nor talk too wise:
If you can dream—and not make dreams your master;
If you can think—and not make thoughts your aim;
If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster
And treat those two impostors just the same;
If you can bear to hear the truth you’ve spoken
Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,
Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken,
And stoop and build ’em up with worn-out tools:
If you can make one heap of all your winnings And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss, And lose, and start again at your beginnings
And never breathe a word about your loss;
If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew To serve your turn long after they are gone, And so hold on when there is nothing in you
Except the Will which says to them: ‘Hold on!’
If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,
Or walk with Kings—nor lose the common touch,
If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you,
If all men count with you, but none too much;
If you can fill the unforgiving minute With sixty seconds’ worth of distance run,
Yours is the Earth and everything that’s in it And - which is more - you’ll be a Man, my son!
Apt advice from a wise sage! For here, we have even more wisdom from one who, as a part of prior generations, can be considered one of “the old folks”.
After all, is not the phrase “If you can keep your head when all about you are losing theirs” perfectly pictured by remaining a consistently cool 58 degrees inside when temperatures in the world all around you are fluctuating back and forth between tremendous extremes?!
Of course, Kipling is not the only member of previous generations to recognize this. Nor was he the first. Consider, for instance, the wisdom proffered by the writer of the Old Testament Biblical Book of First Kings, who tells us about the Prophet Elijah.
Like the Patriarch Moses before him, he found himself entrenched in a fissure within the rock upon Mt. Horeb in Sinai. Thereafter, there occurred, first a strong wind, then an earthquake, and finally an intense fire, all outside. And yet, in all of these things, he was safe and secure and unharmed.
More to the point, he was reminded by all these things that he was serenely ensconced within the protective hand of Almighty God!
Given all this, I have concluded that being invisible and obscure 140 feet below ground with God is a far, far better thing than being visible and observable above ground in the eyes of the world! For while the world makes its conclusions about us based on mere surface observations, it is God, and God alone, Who judges us solely on our innermost selves.
And surely, He Who is “the same yesterday, today, and tomorrow” values an “even keel” over an “all-over-the map” approach to life!
One last thought… Back in the day, the so-called “Book of World Records” listed the “Lost Sea” not only as the world’s largest underground lake, but also as bottomless! In the day and age of the internet, both of these claims have since been disproven. At its deepest point, the Lost Sea is now known to be 75 feet deep. More to the point, it is not the world’s largest underground lake. It seems that one in Dragon's Breath Cave, in Namibia, Africa rightfully holds that title.
Still, the Lost Sea is a significant entity. And its truths are evident. What is more, I, for one, am so glad that my family and I dropped in!
POEM SOURCE:
https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/46473/if---.
ATTRACTION SOURCES:
https://thelostsea.com/;
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Craighead_Caverns.
SEE ALSO:
https://www.plantmaps.com/en/us/climate/extremes/f/tennessee-record-high-low-temperatures;
https://poets.org/poem/hamlet-act-iii-scene-i-be-or-not-be.
SCRIPTURES:
https://biblehub.com/niv/1_kings/19.htm.
https://biblehub.com/niv/exodus/33.html;
https://biblehub.com/hebrews/13-8.htm;
https://www.openbible.info/topics/being_calm_under_stress.