The healing power of mute stone -- fiction or frightening fact? Crystal-wearing crackpots answer "Yes!" while scientists scoff. Coal makes durable houses, and runestones and stonehenges (with their "heel" stones) can add oomph to a spell or spooky atmosphere for a hot date. But when was the last time a slab of marble or a chunk of granite made you feel good?

Ask the citizens of Charlotte, NC, who will be honored November 7 through 11 with a visit from " The Wall That Heals," a half-scale traveling replica of the Vietnam War Memorial in Washington, DC

The Wall That Heals has been on tour since late 1996 and has already been viewed by 300,000 people. Nearly 250 feet long, The Wall was constructed by the same people who built the original in Washington. For many, the trip is shorter and so is the monument, but its effects on wounds of the spirit are no less powerful.

Turner Network Television is promoting The Wall That Heals tour through "Operation TNT," a Veterans Day holiday weekend blitz of war movies and live commercials. Local sponsors include the Charlotte Convention & Visitors Bureau and Time Warner Cable.

Less hyped are graffiti-spattered slabs of Berlin Wall that have tumbled into the US Perhaps their healing powers were spent when they were knocked down (the nation of Germany certainly seems to have recovered nicely). However, this may also be because visitors are DISCOURAGED FROM TOUCHING THESE WALLS, ostensibly to protect their graffiti. We don't want to raise any false hopes, and we're not saying that there's any CONSPIRACY OF THE SUPERRICH TO RESERVE THE HEALING POWERS OF THE MOST FORMIDABLE WALL OF THE 20TH CENTURY FOR THEMSELVES, but if you're feeling peeked and The Wall That Heals isn't rolling down your Main Street, you might want to make a pilgrimage to the Berlin Wall slab nearest you. [09/14/1997]

February 10, 2012