Wisdom to know the difference...

The homeless dude at the library, Nelson, previously told me that he had a special stone for me. For hours on end, this guys sits @ the library with a huge magnifying glass studying all shapes & sizes of rocks, while comparing them to an archeological book. I had to admit, I was anxious to see what he came up with.

I looked for him there this past Saturday. When I saw him, I did my usual (fishing out my $1 bills to slide to him quietly). When he saw me, he lit up & said, 'I have that stone for you.' I walked around while I gave him time to dig thru his belongings, then he approached me with my 'special' stone.

Nelson amazed me with his knowledge of rocks & references from the book he studied. He was very animated & funny while he showed me 'the red tint' the rock held, and how he recovered it from deep in one of our local creek beds, but had shined it up for me. While I listened, I really looked at him, and underneath all of his "homelessness," I could tell that when he had it going on, Nelson was a pretty attractive guy. I also wondered when, why & how his life crashed and burned.

I treasure the tiny rock, which I instantly noticed was heart shaped. When I pointed out the shape to Nelson, he looked at me like I was crazy (LOL!) - he saw it in a totally different way than I, which is cool. I didn't see a 'red tint, either, but beauty is in the eye of the beholder.

I wrapped my special stone in tissue & put it in my pocket till i got home. It is amazingly heart shaped, which I find perfect under the circumstances. There is so much I treasure about it:

• it's from Nelson (who, for a person down on his luck, is one of the happiest folks I've run into)
  
• he thought enough of me to give up one of his precious stones
• the way we laughed & talked to each other while others watched in awe

And even though to me, the rock looks like this:

To Nelson, it looks like this:
.... and that's just perfect for me! :-)


Pictures: Internet courtesy