Precious to Me

 [Since my tablet is broken I bit the bullet and illustrated this with markers.  You'll probably have the click the images to enlarge and read them :)]

I got into a conversation the other day with Spencer about how pearls are my favorite precious gem.  Later, while speaking to my (ex)manager about the same thing, he interrupted me, saying they were semi-precious.  I replied with slight irritation and not-so-slight twang, "Ah don't cay-ure." and then continued what I was saying.

Personally, I don't care if a gem is precious or not.  In my opinion, pearls aren't even gems, jewels, or anything of the sort.  They're more like. . .hardened mollusk snot.  It's because of this that I like pearls so much.  It's almost ironic that something so beautiful and revered comes from such icky origins.

When a piece of sand or something else weird gets inside of a mollusk's shell, if it's irritating enough to the soft tissue, the mollusk will form a pearl around it by adding layer after layer of some kind of hardened liquid.  That's like a human being making the conscious decision to grow something around the tag of his shirt because it's itchy.

Due to my love of such irony, I actually bought my boyfriend and I something pearl related for valentines day.  Girly, I know, but I wanted to give him something strange, nifty, and romantic.  Pearls do manage hit all of those targets.

While visiting a gift shop in Tarapin, Florida I came across a display of "wishing pearls".  Basically, a company farms pearls inside of clams, takes the clam and preserves it in alcohol, sticks it in a can and packs it in a box with a necklace to put the pearl inside.  You're supposed to open the can, open the clam, take the pearl out and compare it to their "colour chart" to see what your pearl represents.  Unfortunately, both of our pearls were some kind of strange, in-between colour of every colour on the planet.

Then, you are to put the pearl inside of the little necklace and wear it forever.  Spencer made his into a keychain to combat the girliness of the whole concept.  I'm glad, because I was super worried about what he'd think of the pearl.  I bought it more for the experience of finding a pearl inside of something even though the label on the box told me I would.

So worried, in fact, that a week before valentines day I called my mom and asked her whether or not it was downright ridiculous that I bought him the thing in the first place.  I told her why I liked pearls and why I wanted him to have one and she replied, "That's hilarious.  Oysters create pearls by smoothing over something rough in their shell and people give each other gifts on Valentines Day to smooth over rough patches in their relationships."  Suddenly, everything made sense.  Or it would have if Spencer and I ever argued enough to induce gift-apologies.  Most of our arguments are mild, include nothing but grumpy faces, and end in both of us going, "Aaaah, I'm so sorry aaaah."

I think it's because we're so dang compatible.  We just don't have much to argue about.  When we do fight, it's because one of us is stressed out.  They're never bad enough to induce screaming and severe anger.  Which is good because if I could grow pearls around things that irritate me, what would stop me from turning him into a giant statue of hardened mucus?  Not only that, but what would stop me from forming pearls around everything I own?

Pearls may only be semi-precious, but I find them to be the most precious of all shiny and coveted things.  A creature as simple as a mollusk takes something obnoxious and turns it into something humans consider beautiful enough to wear as jewelry.  The mollusk doesn't know this is going to happen; all it cares about is fixing the irritation.

We could learn a lot from this.  Why not try fixing things that bug us instead of dwelling on them?  I could drag an argument out for weeks if I really wanted to.  Instead, I like to quit while I'm ahead, wait to cool down and apologize when I'm not in hyper-mode.  I just wait until I've had time to think, smooth some logic over whatever irritated me in the first place, and wait for it to harden into something more clarifying.

I'd rather not waste my time arguing with the man I love when  every moment I have with him is as precious to me as a hardened glob of mollusk secretions.