The Pearl....

Have you ever considered the pearl? An odd phenomenon, it is the product of an oyster or clam, a slimy little creature surrounding himself with a shell and living where, inevitably, he gets sand kicked in his face. He's not a particularly handsome creature in the same limits that we find birds, puppies and kittens, people, even frosty cold beer handsome. And, perhaps not even to other oysters. So perhaps he gets sand kicked in his face fairly often. Sooner or later, that sand that is kicked in his face, as it were, gets past that tough shell and becomes an irritant. What does the oyster do? He wraps that irritant in layers upon layers of himself, in effect isolating himself from the effects of that irritating sand.

What becomes of the irritant we call a pearl. It isn't the sand that is made beautiful, but the very substance of the oyster brought out by the maddening irritation of the sand that shows itself to be truly beautiful. The inner beauty of a creature many would describe as unattractive thrust forth in protection. Isn't it odd?

(We won't go into the manner in which an oyster is harvested. Nor will we wonder at the thoughts of a creature who sees us marvel at the beauty of something he found torturous.)

Sometimes, I guess, inner beauty is never expressed unless there is some form of extreme irritant that simply won't go away.