What's the Point?

            It's a Lamoka projectile point to be precise.  Thanks to our friend Tony's expertise and the kindness of a local farmer, my family went "arrowhead" hunting yesterday near the Susquehanna River in New York.  The Lamoka projectile point, pictured to the left, is the fruit of two hours of combing the stubble of a 30-acre corn/soybean field for the finely-worked flint tools of the ancient people who roamed these parts nearly 6,000 years ago.  The Lamoka point predates the bow and arrow, so it's not really an arrowhead but rather an atlatl dart point.  Having now exhausted my knowledge of Native American archaeology, I commend you to Wikipedia, via the hotlinks provided above, for more information.

          Although nine of us spent the afternoon pacing the soon-to-be cultivated field, 30 plus acres is a pretty big space, so it was largely a solitary venture for each of us.  I treasure these rare occasions to think, meditate and pray alone, though I admit that my prayer was largely dedicated to the intercession of Saint Anthony ("Saint Anthony, Saint Anthony please come around; something is lost that needs to be found - please help me find an arrowhead").  The prayer obviously was successful, and I think the mediation was too.

          I spent most of my time hunched over in the field meditating on how cool it was to be standing in a place where an ancient people whittled out the tools that sustained their lives.  I thought about how they probably could never have imagined that some 6,000 years later, people would hunt for their artifacts, trying to discern what their life was like and how they survived.  I also wondered whether 6,000 years from now anyone would spend two hours searching a field for whatever remnants of my life might emerge from the soil, and whether they would consider me as primitive as I consider the people who carved the Lamoka point. 

          My meditation was an exercise in connecting with the past, the present and the future.  It was a spiritual exercise because spirituality is all about connections:  our connections to each other; to nature and the universe; and to our God.  God is the constant that links us with the past, sustains us in the present and guides us toward the future.  In God, all people of all times are eternally connected because God is equally present to the past, the present and the future.  And all people of all times are equally loved by God, no matter how primitive they or we may be.  So it was all the more fitting that I spent those two hours assuming the postion of a deep, reverent bow.

          I felt all of those connections in the middle of that cornfield, and I felt God's love too.  I was surrounded by my family and friends, but also by the Lamoka people, by the centuries of settlers and farmers who have tilled that field, past and present, and by all who will work that land in the future.  All of us were gathered together in the warm embrace of a God who loves us.  And in the end, that's precisely the only point that matters.