September 18, 2013 (Wednesday)
There’s a place in Arkansas where you can look for diamonds. A few people have found some that are valuable, but most of the finds are of little stones about the size of a paper match head. They’re fun to find, though.
Diamonds on the surface of the earth came from far beneath the surface, usually forced upwards through volcanic activity. Their best-known use is in jewelry, but industry makes wide use of them in abrasives. We’ve always been fascinated by them.
Diamonds are the hardest materials known to man. They are made of carbon, the sixth most common element on earth. In combination with other elements carbon is everywhere–in the ground, in the plants and trees, and in you and me.
Diamonds and coal are both made of carbon, and this fact brought to mind a good old country song by Billy Joe Shaver:
Hey I’m just an old chunk of coal but I’m gonna be a diamond some day
I’m gonna grow and glow till I’m so blue pure perfect
I’m gonna put a smile on everybody’s face
I’m gonna kneel and pray every day lest I should become vain along the way
I’m just an old chunk of coal now Lord but I’m gonna be a diamond some day.
In our quest for beauty, however, let’s not forget to be useful. Coal is useful. In its own way, that makes it beautiful. As a song says, “Everything is beautiful, in its own way.”