5:42 AM Fort

They destroy at night. I create in the morning, 5:42 in the morning to be precise. My earliest fort of all time…

A beautiful sunrise over the mountains, purple, orange and white clouds in a dull blue sky, met me. I drank cheap coffee and marveled at my energy and spirit.

I pulled over into the wayside on my way to work, my construction gig, and started walking down the beach. A fort would form itself or not; it depended on what was there or not there; it depended on the fullness of my creative mind or the emptiness of my mind. I saw a massive root wad tilted at an unusual angle. Someone has built tiny cairns on it, and left behind offerings of shells and feathers. A long, thin, round piece of driftwood caught my eye. I retrieved it and leaned it against the root wad. I found two other spars and whipped up the beginnings of a fort or sculpture or whatever it would become today at the hands of others. Doubtless the creation would be destroyed tonight. This was Fort Destroyer territory. But while it stood it will have delighted hundreds of others, and inspired them to create, add, change, strengthen, adorn, collaborate. The Destroyer knows nothing of that.