Everyday, a child is born out coal and fire. Pressured at an early age to succeed and strive for perfection throughout his youth. For years, the child hides in his mother’s belly. Here he is warm. Here he is fed. And in time, he will grow to become something beautiful.

A Diamond

Love is hard to refine. Many people have tried. Alchemists said to have been able to change lead into gold, but even they were hard pressed to form a diamond. A diamond is genuine and unique. It takes thousands to even billions of years for it to form. And even then, it’s a challenge to find one. They are probably the world’s craftiest stone beside the rubies, sapphires and emeralds. It’s even said that a diamond is formed in a lake of fire beneath the crust of the earth. And this is the story of one such diamond.

It all starts off near the center of earth, where all baby diamonds are born. At first they are simply a lump of coal just like the one’s Santa gives to young girls and boys who’ve been naughty not nice. Dirty and black is the lump of coal. Who begins his journey at a snail’s pace. The first of his crystals is carried on his back, serving as his eye into the dark underworld. The path is ridden with dangers. Great chasms and farms of sharp gems lay in the deep. And the roaring of molten lava can be heard just about anywhere here. But this little lump of coal was not afraid. Fire did not scare him in the slightest.

No, no, no. He didn’t care for the fire. No, no, no. He wasn’t afraid of the dark. He was a brave, bright child. Nothing scared him, and so it was this small lump got harder and harder, shrinking down to half his size. But he wasn’t scared of anything even though he was smaller than the other gems and uglier than the ugliest of them. Even they would complain about the heat. It was very hot down there -- So very hot. But he didn’t complain or cry like the others because he knew he was almost there. And as he climbed up his thousandth stalactite, one of those big, long spikes that hung from the caves rooftop, he saw his first glimpse of a miracle -- a shaft of light, shooting straight and through a crack not so far away.

Oh how excited this young diamond had become as he raced to catch that ray of light.

When all of a sudden, a great rumble shook beneath the cavern he called his home. He tried to grasp at a passing emerald but his hold slipped and he fell a great ways down, crashing against the floor with a booming “Plink!”

Oh the pain, Oh the horror. A piece of his ear and one of his eyes were missing. Oh the shame, Oh the… Oh wait.

“I’m not broken.” said the lump of coal in surprise. But what happened he wondered. His big, black butt plopped down on a great big boulder that had broken his fall. He looked around again only to find the ray had gone whisked away by that awful shake. Undeterred, the lump of coal got up once more with one ear and one eye.

“What do I do now?” He asked the empty cave. But there was no reply. He couldn’t go back up; otherwise the cave may shake again. And if he went down, it would only lead him back they way he came and that was no fun at all. All that was left was to press on.

And so the baby diamond decided to rest. Yup, after all that walking, climbing and falling it had made him very sleepy. So he closed his little eye and went straight to bed. But he didn’t have a bed, he realized. So getting up from the boulder, he looked about. He gathered some pebbles and a great big clump of dirt and molded himself a pillow, a blanket and a teddy bear. Climbing in, he cuddled up close and closed his eyes again.

Slowly he drifted on grey clouds to sleep. He dreamt of small dreams all that his little mind could muster. One was chasing after the ray through the dark, but never catching it. The second was dancing on the surface were a passing water droplet told him that there were great big mountains, great big lakes and things called “Trees” that grow so tall that they could touch his cave’s ceiling and poke a hole right through it. The small diamond tried to imagine what they would look like, but all he could see were great big stalagmites which were the pointy stones at the bottom of his cave. Oh how bored he was of his little cave. He wished that the droplet had stayed, so he could ask more about the surface. But he had already gone with his brothers and sisters back up through the ol’ geyser.

Little diamond never liked the ol’ geyser. He was never nice to him. Telling him he was just wasting his time trying to find the surface. Maybe if he had brought the ray of light with him, he thought. Maybe then the ol’ geyser would believe him. But then again if he had followed the ray, he probably wouldn’t go back.

A great big rustling awoke the diamond. He got up from his bed and was amazed at how bright his cave had gotten. Rubbing away at his eyes, he noticed that it had grown back. Surprised, he jumped out of bed and checked himself in a nearby pool of oil. The pool’s name was Slick and it didn’t like to talk with him much. He looked into his reflection and noticed he had changed. Now his whole head was shiny and bright with crystals of all shapes and sizes. He had a new ear, a new mouth, a new nose and even some hair. As he was admiring his new face, some small bits of dust fell on his head as the rumbling got louder and louder. He looked up at the stalactites shuddering in fear as a great, big monster came near, dropping down from the roof of his cave. At first he thought it to be a tree, but it had great big ears that wrapped all the way around its head.

“Well, I’ll be damned, looks like we hit pay dirt here.” It said menacingly to Slick as it peered down at the puddle of oil he just met. “We got a beau-tee-ful pool down ‘ere boys let’s get the pipes and rig setup.” said a voice he couldn’t see. For he had shut his eyes tightly pretending to sleep, hoping whatever they were they’d leave him alone.

And for the first time, for as long as he could remember he felt fear -- The cold, unforgiving sort of fear that passes right through you like a ghost. But just as he was about to yell out, the monster had vanished and a great peel of light spilt down on him, bathing him in its glory. So overcome with awe and wonder the diamond didn’t notice one of the workers jump down and pick him up.

“Well, well, well. What do we have ‘ere?” exclaimed the worker as he took off the top of his head, frightening the young diamond even more. Another of them came close inspecting him.

“No, friggin’ way. Were did you find that thing.” He asked heatedly, reaching out to grab him, but the other guy pulled away swiftly with an odd look on his face.

“Hey, now. This is mine, alright.”

“Yah, yah. Sure… Could you at least let just let me have a look at it.”

“You promise not to take it.”

“Sure whatever, I pinky swear alright. Now let me have a look.”

With that the little diamond was passed from hand to hand to hand. He traveled far and wide meeting more and more of these giant creatures. The first of them had kept referring to one another as “guy” so that’s what he assumed they were.

A guy had big long limbs like the trees, he even saw these on his travels. But unlike trees, guys had hands and feet at the end of their limbs. Their head wasn’t that much different than his own, flat and round. What amazed and frightened him were their colors. All he had ever seen in the dark days of his youth were blue from the sapphires, red from rubies and green from emeralds.

Out here there were colors from aqua to violet. Every “guy” had a different set of colors on them. Some even wore things on their heads called “helmets” or sometimes “hats.” Others wore mixed colors. Bright oranges against cream white bars or bright blue legs. But no matter what guy he passed he noticed that each had that same peculiar look on their face. There eyes would light up and their mouths would open to show the yellow yucky row of stalagmites and stalactites. Their mouths were different from his. Like big caves of their own, and unlike any other thing he had met. They seemed to talk a lot. It took him eons to get the ol’ geyser going. But these guys, sure liked to talk.

He mostly had to listen about something called “dollars.” The little diamond had no clue what it meant or the words said before it like “nine hundred, sixty, three” or “eight hundred, forty, two.” But whenever one would pass him over their whole face would change, and it amazed the young diamond.

Over the years he spent with the “guys” he had gotten a haircut, a makeover and a pedicure. He wasn’t sure what all the fuss was about. He thought he looked fine the way he was. A bit of black never hurt anyone. But now he was what they kept saying “perfect.”

That was until he met his other half. It was like they were made for each other, he thought as they placed him in his arms. The hug was unlike anything he’d felt before. It absolutely made him shine from the inside out. Just like that first day he saw the ray of light. The only thing missing was the mouth. His love didn’t have one and that made him all the happier. Since he was tired of all the “guys” chatter. He decided to call him Ringo.

Now I wish I could end this story now and spare you the “and they lived happily ever after,” but it goes on. You see unknown to our little diamond here. He was actually going to be sold to a very old, old man.

Mr. Grumpy is what the Diamond called him. For he had a sharpness to his tongue that would put even the diamond to shame.

“Are you ******* telling me that, that ******* stone is gonna cost me ******* 880 dollars? That’s f******* ridiculous!”

“Excuse me, sir. But could you please lower your…”

“No! I’m telling you now sonny, boy. I’m picking this here diamond for my daughter because his lazy excuse for a lover doesn’t have the ****** balls to propose. Now all I got here is 750.”

“Um, sir. The sign says 889.”

“I don’t give a rats *** what that sign says. You either take my 750 or I’ll tell every one I know what a pure excuse for a ******* jeweler you are.”

“Sir, I really can’t…”

“Fine, you know what!” He growled, indignantly slamming a wad of shiny aluminum down on table with such force that it cracked the glass above him. “Here’s your ******* 900 dollars.”

It woke the diamond up as he realized that something was up. Right above him he watched as the teller guy and grumpy guy continued to argue -- When finally the teller guy raised his hand in defeat, ending the argument.

“Sir, I’m really sorry for the inconvenience. Let me just run this through.” The teller replied apologetically. He took the shiny aluminum and punched it into the “dollar machine 7-5-0” before pulling the diamond and his friend “Ringo” out from beneath the glass cave.

Diamond wasn’t sure why Grumpy was so…. well grumpy. Most guys liked Ringo and him. And Mr. Teller was always polite, never said a bad word about a person. That has to count for something. Teller then put both him and Ringo into a smaller cave this one filled with very soft purple pebbles. And through it he heard muffled goodbyes followed by more profanity. How he wondered how such guys got so grumpy.

A few days would pass. His dark cave opening every now and again, as if to check on diamond in case he’d escaped. He thought of it a few times, but didn’t like the idea of breaking up with Ringo. Besides he liked it here in the purple cave. It was quiet and not so bright -- Very cozy indeed.

Then came the day of passing, he had gotten use to it by now. But this time -- Well this time was different. When Mr. Grumpy handed us over, his face for the first time ever, had that very same peculiar change. Eyes sparkling blue, mouth wide with small dark spaces missing from fallen stalactites and mites. That got diamond wondering if Mr. Grumpy had also gone through a shake like his own.

“Oh, my God. Dad. I can’t do this.” Said the guy Grumpy called Jen.

“Are you ******* kidding me. You can’t wait forever you know!”

“Oh, I can’t Dad it’s ridiculous. It’s too soon.” She said her face turning a darker shade of red -- Almost scarlet before looking back at the pair of them.

“Now look, no daughter of mine is going to live her years lonely, and depressed like their old man. Now I paid good money for this. And-“

“Whoa, whoa… Don’t even start on your sermon on “Guilt Trips.” Mom used to do that and looked what happened to me.

“Shut your trap and just do it, you hear?”

He said the last bit softer than diamond ever expected he could while slowly closing the diamond’s cave. Last thing he saw of Grumpy was his fingers holding to guy “Jen.”

Afterwards there was a lot of muffling and shuffling done by guy “Jen.” -- Too much in fact. Diamond found himself caring more about guy “Jen” than any other guy. And he couldn’t explain why.

The only words he caught were “God, I can’t believe…” He heard a lot about this God. And the more he heard the less he liked. It seemed like no one ever liked this God because they only talked about him when things got real bad. Like when Mr. Grumpy was swearing at Teller.

If he were God, he’d just tell them to be quiet because they talked too much. And it was hard to get sleep when all you can hear is blah blah blah this or blah blah that.

He liked Jen and Grumpy because they talked only about interesting stuff like far off places. Japan was mentioned lots, but he had no idea why.

That was until he met his first love.

“Mau” was her name. And it stood for Wow! Because Mau was the most beautiful guy he’d ever seen. And when Jen proposed to Mau, diamond shined the brightest and sparkled the sparkliest he’d ever done before. For he realized his purpose in life -- Too cut through the invisible glass between two guys and allow them to really talk to one another.

And you may be wondering why I like Mau so much… Well she’s the first guy ever that spoke Japanese.

A Diamond

It represents love, commitment, joy, emotion, loyalty and a whole rainbow of other feelings. In some it can excite jealousy or envy while for others admiration and happiness. Only it’s hard to really tell whether it will take your breadth away or send you screaming for the hills because a little bit of fear lies in that beautiful, black box. That’s why we keep it secret, keep it safe, hoping beyond hope to be sure that this is the right time and the right person.

You can even remember walking into the jewelers, stopping by the counter and staring into that glass pane; carefully picking out your stone. It lies there beckoning to you. For it had also gone through a journey to find itself there, looking up at you through very same glass pane. It had been child once upon a time, just like you. It had dreams of how the world would be, up above. While it pretended to be sleeping as the world continued to go by at a pace that surprised a bewildered this bright child. But it had to be smart to have survived for so long. While others had perished in fire and lava, he had crept slowly away over thousands of years -- Ever pressured by Mother Earth to continue its journey and never to quit.

It’s like looking into your own life and seeing all that wonderful crafted into a clear, crystal-like form that sparkles when the light hits it just right. The iridescent beams captivate and amaze you as you remember your own mother’s embrace as a child, holding your hands, so that you may take those first tentative steps into your toddler years.

The price is a bit over your budget, but you really don’t care for the first time in awhile. It’s hard to put a price on some things. A Christmas gift, Valentine’s card, or even a Birthday cake because they are simply beyond numbers.

Is there anything else in your world that you feel the same way about?