I had to squint to see the beautiful Emerald as the light reflecting off its many facets caused my eyes to water. From where I stood, she seemed flawless. I dreamed of holding her, possessing her, gazing forever into her Emerald eyes.
And then I saw the rare Ruby that had only arrived today. I had briefly read about her in print years earlier. A mysterious disappearance…thought to be stolen…gone forever…only resurfacing this year.
She was pulsating with vibration and glowing with light. The closer I got to her, I could feel my whole body start to tremble. I asked the attendant if there was some special sound system used to cause this throbbing effect that penetrated to my bones like the heavy bass booming through a dance club’s speakers. He told me that the vibration came from the Ruby herself and that there was no additional amplification that created the effect.
“How about the glow?” I asked. “Clearly that is done with some kind of laser.” He told me that no external light was added, that her luminescence came from within.
I had gone to exhibits around the world and held many a precious stone in my hand, but this Ruby didn’t look like any other gem I had ever seen. Yes, she was somewhat circular, and somewhat shiny, but that was where the similarities ended. She wasn’t just a pretty stone—which they all were. She contained a life force that you could palpably feel when she was in your sight.
I brought my face right up to her display and could see my own reflection shining back at me, more handsome than any mirror had ever shown it. She seemed to make me look better than I was and I started to feel better than I had been.
This gangly, awkward, street kid that most had shied away from, thinking me dangerous or strange, had grown into a man in a suit. But my appearance never seemed to bring me any respect. No matter how much I tried to fit in, I was never accepted. But when she shone her light on me, in that instant I stopped being a man and became a brilliant gem myself. Staring into her face I became lost in her light. I don’t know how long I stood there motionless and I would have continued to be standing there like a stone if the man behind me hadn’t tapped me on the shoulder.
“She’s a beauty, eh sir?” said the man, snapping me out of my trance. He called me “sir,” a term of respect that I never seemed to get until she had lit up my own inner glow. I felt in her presence that the whole world was available to me, for now my dark shadows had melted away with the light she had lit inside of me.
And then I thought that perhaps this was the key to her beauty, that she focused her light on everyone who was around her, making us all glow a little brighter; from her container we were the precious stones.
I went back to where the Emerald was kept. And now I no longer had to squint to look at her, for once my eyes adjusted to the intense glow of the Ruby, the Emerald looked almost dim by comparison—still a beautiful piece, with shapes and curves, cut to perfection. But she didn’t make my heart come alive the way the Ruby did.
I realized it was my own light that was making the Emerald look so bright and when I no longer shined it on her, she looked just like an ordinary stone. And now my desire to make her my own was gone.
I went back to the museum every day. And the same lines I used to wait on eagerly to see the Emerald, now seemed to make me impatient. And so I said to myself that I would gladly see her if there was no line…but there always was. And soon I didn’t even try.
But I would wait for hours if need be to stand face to face with the Ruby that had not captured my heart, for she would never encase me with her love, but left it in my chest to beat faster when just thinking about her.