Tunnels and People

Tunnels for hiding, tunnels for smuggling. Tunnels for sneaking, tunnels for trading. Tunnels to get under things, tunnels to keep things running. Tunnels to hide from ice and snow, tunnels to move people from point A to point B. Tunnels that move water, tunnels that go under water. Tunnels that go through mountains, tunnels that collapse mountains. Tunnels for escaping, tunnels for blowing things up.

In my lifetime to date, I've seen tunnels constructed by French people, Germans, Americans, Romans, British. I know about tunnels built by Palestinians, Vietnamese, Japanese. I've seen the surface reminders of coal mines, kinds worked in by members of my own family. I know of the salt mines below Detroit. I've seen catacombs in France and Italy. I've seen underground tunnels and fallout shelters under Duke University, and connecting tunnels under Macomb Community College in Warren, Michigan. Somewhere there's Super 8mm footage of me and some friends under Duke, a sort of short science fiction film shot more than thirty years ago. I've seen underground caches of food, water and Geiger counters, enough for a long siege if not a nuclear holocaust. Tunnels never cease to amaze me.










Tunnels are examples of human ingenuity equalled or surpassed only by human stupidity, insanity, and misery in their use and/or in their destruction. Little wonder that human ingenuity is sometimes called infernal; certainly its uglier ramifications often come out that way, whether they were intended to or not.

Today's Rune: The Mystery Rune.