Lamentation Run, Demystified

The veil of sacredness dissipates when you get too close. If you pick up the sacramental chalice, you can flip it upside down and read the writing on the bottom. It usually says some banal thing like "Hecho en Mexico."

If you peak around behind the gilded surface, push back the tapestried dossal curtain, you'll find raw wood and exposed nails. Nothing more.

Sometimes it's better to leave Mystery alone, as long as it's not hurting anyone... (And Mystery causes far less pain in this world than Certainty does!)

I couldn't leave the mystery of Lamentation Run alone. I just had to find out how it got its extraordinary name. So I emailed the Forest County Historical Society, and this was their reply:

"Ebenezer Kingsley bestowed this odd name on this stream. During his stay in this area, he stated that the wolves were very plentiful along the banks of this stream. The nights were nightmarish and hideous because of the incessant nocturnal lamenting." (Excerpted from a historical book about the county's place names)

So the "lamentation" was nothing more than the howling of the wolves. And I imagined some great, human tragedy, long since forgotten. Ah, but who knows why the wolves were so sad? Maybe they knew their time on the banks of Lamentation Run was drawing to a close?

Kudos to the good folks at the Forest County Historical Society. For a county that boasts neither traffic light nor hospital, their historians are on the ball.