gems and jewels

Crystals and jewels are something about which I know very little. Still, there is appeal in the words and appeal in the fairy tale illustration thoughts that come to mind. Children's books have images of pirate treasure chests brimming with gold and various crystals. Great green dragons with forked red tongues and fire and smoke issuing from their throats and nostrils can be seen guarding their stacks of jewels and gem bedecked crowns and ropes of pearls ... and more overflowing treasure chests.

When we were kids, we knew the stone for the month we were born. In our family, there were some well known birth month gems, but two of us had stones that you don't see mentioned in stories and movies: peridot and aquamarine. The colors are lovely - pale crystals of green and blue - but that's all I know. Across the decades of my life, diamonds, rubies, and emeralds have come up with some regularity in books and news articles and museums. Sapphires and opals and garnets are not as frequently mentioned, but still in the everyday vocabulary. Quartz has lots of applications - and is easily found in streambeds in the mountains. Pearls are not gem stones, but an animal product formed within some oysters. (Too bad for the oldest oysters - they have been collected by divers around the world hoping to strike it rich with the discovery of one gleaming, symmetrical pearl the size of a marble.)

Topaz comes up now and again. Topaz is familiar to me because of family with African ties who long ago collected specimans in creekbeds of Nigeria.

Beryl is a gem, and it's a word that fascinates me. But I wouldn't recognize it if it were placed in the palm of my hand.