I know this place well. It is beautiful and peaceful. The Broyhill Park offers contrast to the hustle and bustle of Blowing Rock’s Main Srreet just a block away. I did not go there in search of peace nor beauty.

I was only there for the anvil. The saying and the book, The Anvil of Adversity, have been on my mind.

I read this biography about James Edgar Broyhill written by William Stevens years ago. It has new meaning for me now.

The anvil is a symbol of being shaped by adversity. Like being between a rock and a hard place, while being beaten and heated. No one can survive such without being changed.

I needed to see this symbol in this setting for a reason. I may post on this later. It involves the histories of my family. I see the world from both sides now.

We all experience adversity in our lives. In this society, some of us have adversity built into our futures because of our sex, our race, or our physical challenges. These folks are cast of different alloys. The anvils for these groups are everpresent.

I do not wish to negate the struggles of the caucasian male in America. I have heard about and witnessed my father, husband and son work incredibly hard since boyhood. My father told many stories of killing chickens, farming, picking cotton, selling tomato plants grown from seed, setting up a fireworks stand, selling movie tickets and popcorn and even mistletoe.  All this was before joining the army, going to Korea and then to college. I could list similar boyhood jobs for my husband and son.

The men in my life have worked as hard as they could to make progress and provide for their families. They chose their anvils. They were born of certain alloys. They did not endure painful, nonproductive shaping at an early age. Most hits and heat had a purpose. Not all people are this fortunate.

I will be remembering the anvil as a symbol of all the hardships we all endure that shape and forge us into something stronger.

I wish those who feel entitled could pause at their own forge long enough to see that others have spent too much time being heated and beaten and not enough time solidifying and strengthening.

FLOW