My Rock

I found a large rock in my yard once and noticed that it had petroglyphs carved onto it.  This happened when I lived in Arizona a few years ago, and I saw that the petroglyphs were of frequent symbols used by the ancient people that lived in Arizona at one time.  There was a spiral shape and a figure on a man bent forward in the back playing a flute.  There was another symbol that I've forgotten now.  

I kept the rock for a couple of years, and puzzled over the meaning of the rock.  What did the symbols mean?  It was some form of communication, and yet the meaning was not reaching me.  I supposed the person who had carved it was appealing to the god Kokopelli, who is always represented as looking just like the figure on my rock.  I had heard that Kokopelli was a "prankster" and a god of fertility.  I don't think anyone knows much about Kokopelli. In legends, villages could hear Kokopelli playing music and would dance to the music.  Then all the women would conceive.  

I was not comfortable with having a rock with Kokopelli on it in the house, since it represented a false god, which couldn't be good.  My rock could be dangerous.  And so I decided that Kokopelli had to go.  Should I throw it into the Colorado River where it couldn't do any harm?  I contacted the Heard Museum in Phoenix and sent photos of it to see if they wanted it.  They sent me a terse, angry letter saying that they didn't want my rock and they were certain no one else would either.  So I continued to ponder the fate of my rock.  I considered breaking it with a sledge hammer to err on the side of caution.  I didn't want to take any chances with curses.  But what if it were just art and I destroyed ancient art?  

One day I decided to give my rock to my next door neighbor.  She probably wondered what motivated me to do that.  But then I decided that next door wasn't far enough away for the rock to be from me.  However, I didn't own the rock anymore so I couldn't do anything about it.  So there the rock sits, happily ever after.