Hot Springs Diamond
Aug. 27th, 2003 11:06 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
gurdonarkHot Springs is a Ouachita Mountains resort town in Arkansas. Al Capone used to winter there; now they race horses there in Springtime. It's got bath houses and pancake houses and some of the most glorious mountain hiking nearby.
Quartz occurs naturally in veins which run very near the surface in much of the Ouachitas. The Ouachitas are the "other" mountains in Arkansas, much smaller than the Ozarks, much less well-travelled. They are "fold" mountains, which seem to wrap themselves around one's mind as one drives through them.
Quartz is so abundant in the Hot Springs area that it has its own nickname--a "Hot Springs Diamond". One can find them at any of a tendozen tourist shops all along the way, polished or cut and multi-faceted.
Lately I think of myself as a kind of Hot Springs diamond--not precious, exactly (or precious in only the wrong way), but many-faceted, crystalline, and all that. I suppose I may be mistaken, and I may just be a calcite crystal, a bit chunky and way too translucent. But in my mind, I am a many-faced crystal, perhaps not as simple and rich as an opal, but perhaps not entirely without interest as well. But it really doesn't matter if I am anything or not anything. It matters to me only that I see the many different moods and feelings, and try to make them, and thus me, seem like just one form of stone. I don't know why that matters to me, but it does.
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a stone is a stone is a stone
Date: 2003-08-28 06:02 am (UTC)we've picked up crystals and had pancakes from Hot Springs, Arkansas, and they are beautiful (crystals, not pancakes). In fact, I was just thinking about those crystals because we were gathering beautiful rocks along the Lake Superior shore on Monday. I was weighing in my mind whether when one looks for stones one should look only for agates, or pink quartz, or a crystal, in order to find something of "value." A beautiful stone is a beautiful stone, a thing unique and without equal - each carries its own value. I'm going to write more about Lake Superior stones, because there is much to say about them.
but when I read this about you my first thought was that you are indeed multi-faceted, but you remind me more of a semi-precious and rarer stone, more like what? Lapiz Lazuli or something...?
deep blue beauty flecked with starstuff.
but if you are transluscent then maybe the opal fits
On the other hand, the Arkansas Hot Springs quartz is fitting after all.. they are beautiful too, and muti-faceted as you say:
I'm going to search for "beryl" on the internet. Maybe I can find a cool new icon to use in this post!
I hope your browser picks up these images. Let me know. And thank you for all your wonderful posts!
Beryl
Re: a stone is a stone is a stone
Date: 2003-08-28 07:30 am (UTC)advise me.
The nice thing about the Hot Springs quartz, to my eye, is that it is so familiar and yet so exotic.
Re: a stone is a stone is a stone
Date: 2003-08-28 10:21 am (UTC)I don't know if this will post as being from me , since I'm at work on another computer, but thought I should clarify my overt friendliness, even though we haven't communicated much (yet!). I just realized when I read your reply that I thought I was writing to
But a nice way to begin to become acquainted in any case. My mother was raised in Arkansas, in Gravette. I spent quite a lot of time there, and love it!
I haven't had a chance yet to read much of your journal, but have a little, and am looking forward to reading more.
Re: a stone is a stone is a stone
Date: 2003-08-28 12:21 pm (UTC)