Making Your Mark

Last week was for me a really wonderful time – my son Nicholas and I went on a road trip. Some thought it would end up in bloodshed from the two of us travelling together for nearly a week and others looked at us rather strangely when we told them what we were going to do.

It was fantastic – we drove the Great Ocean Road in Victoria together. An experience, to be honest, that I will never forget!

One of the things we did was to visit Erskine Falls near Lorne. Even though it was bitterly cold and raining Nicholas and I climbed down the pathway of stairs and saw the truly magnificent sight of these falls.

There is a viewing station at the bottom where you look up at the falls – photos are taken and the platform makes it quite safe. Yet as I stood there I noticed something that I didn’t expect. The falls are in quite pristine country and beautiful picturesque surroundings provide the backdrop. It is creation at it’s best!

Yet on every part of the viewing platform people had carved their initials or names. Not a single aspect was not anointed with the marks of human hands. People obviously had taken knives of all sorts to the bottom of the falls where this platform was located and carved their mark.

I looked at the names. Why would you do such a thing? Is this a case where our instinct and desire to make a mark has gone to the extreme? I do think we were created to make a mark but sometimes in an endeavour to do just that we tend to do things that are excessive, destructive, damaging and just plain wrong.

For me, I learnt a lesson that day at Erskine Falls – even though I want to make my mark I need to constantly be mindful of crossing that line between healthy desire and destructive conduct. Sometimes it is, methinks, a fine line but once crossed it is like the carved names on the timber platform – scars are left. I don’t want to be the cause of other people’s scars because of a craving to make a mark.