Ice-covered rock in a riverbed as a metaphor.
Ice "shield" in a river near Aspen, Colorado. Photo: © Donald J. Rommes
The night before, a lot of snow had fallen in the mountains near Aspen, Colorado. It was still snowing lightly as I drove the road along Castle Creek. Where the current was slow, ice covered the surface. When the current was faster, ice formed only at the river's edge or on top of rocks that protruded above the water's surface.
I approached one such stretch of river and waded in. The water was shallow. The red rocks from the nearby Maroon Bells colored the riverbed. A few of the stones protruded above the water's surface, and on one of them was this shield-like formation.
It is a minor miracle of physics that this natural ice sculpture developed where it did. It's another that the ice lasted long enough to be photographed. In reality, the ice formation was pretty stable. Despite being in the current (perhaps partly because of it), it was still there several days later.
There's probably a metaphor lurking there.
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