Ch. 113 Pat Tells Me How Each Rock (and Person) is Special
My daughter Cindy had a great idea: bring Pat a small box filled with selections from our mineral collection. I had taken over a few small ones already but this way she would have many to appreciate. I selected about a dozen, trying to gather “rocks” with varying shapes, looks, and textures.
Pat began by holding a piece of amber in her palm, feeling its warmth and admiring its warm orange glow. “I see what’s inside it,” she said; “its depth.”
Next an ammonite (a spiralling fossil that lived millions of years ago). Pat, turning it over and over, says that “This form was special, like no other.”
Then an amethyst, purple and pointy: “This goes on forever and ever any way you want to turn it. A very strong rock. It could live forever.”
Tiger Eye (yellow shimmering parallel lines against a black background). Pat: “Absolutely my favorite. The lining. The way the lining makes it move.”
Ocean Jasper (pastel expanding circles set against a plain background, originally found near the ocean). Pat: “Quite special because it is a part of itself. It doesn’t fall apart into pieces and never will.”
Mica (flat, silvery sheets that can easily be pulled apart). Pat: “Probably the most fragile but everlasting.”
Pat could relate individually to each stone (Technically, they aren’t all minerals because a mineral must crystallize). Now I realize better why Pat collected plain, “common” rocks, the kind most rockhounds called “leaverites” (as in “leave ‘er right there”). When every rock has its own distinct personality there can be no such thing as a leaverite.
I guess that’s why Pat was such an excellent counselor. She never accepted the idea that any human being could be a leaverite, either.
Pat’s comments on: Pat Tells me How Each Rock (and Person) is Special:
Ron: “Pat, do you think anyone is a “leaverite?”
Pat: “No.”