Next century's sand

This is the stuff that sand is made of. The beachcomber listening to the crunch under every step rarely considers where the grinding of broken molluscs and pebbles on the beach will end. Every stroll is an infinitesimal contribution to the work done by wave ends of the sea, dying on the beach continually as they wash the solid bits about. Some beaches are more energetic than others. All the forces collectively abrade shell grit and small stones into smaller bits, and then even smaller bits, continually, until they’re sand. And then finer sand. Look at sand under a microscope for shapes, sizes and colours. All of this happens so very slowly, all resistance overcome in the fullness of time. 

The undoing of the hard rock is the becoming of the soft beach. Parts of nature change form in collaboration with time. Nothing unusual about that. It happens everywhere, all the time. Call it history, or the irrelevance of history. Too many small changes of similar significance make all of them insignificant. Every transitional state lasts as long as it does, serving as the real look and feel of nature for an undefined interval.

The harder the stone, the longer its resistance. Nature has the time. So, the granules separate when the forces agree. Eventually all the grains exist separately, somewhere, unless cemented into new rock again. Previously related particles occasionally touch randomly as they reduce further; no recognition. As the offspring of one couple after a million generations.