I met a guy the other day who collects rubies. And opals. Just goes out to various rock quarry sites and finds larger gemstones-- he says-- and stashes them unto himself. I was taken aback by the fact that he brought them in to show me. You always wonder if someone is fibbing you or if you're talking to a guy sitting on a well, ruby mine... I mean if he's got these stones in his possession but hasn't done anything with them, then how wise is he. Even so, I thought of it differently, though my discriminating mind was still wrapped in cynical laughter. I turned the entire thing on its side, and imagined to myself, that here is a guy for whom these stones, ruby or otherwise, were precious to him. Maybe he's looking at the value of such a thing as a stone in terms of the weight of it, market value. It's the value that a given society and industry has attached to it... what you can get for precious stones.... but maybe he just enjoys going to look for him. The idea of hidden treasure or found treasure etc. It is this idea of the diamond in the rough that seems to drive us to gather beautiful things to ourselves, because of its worth to us and what it will afford us.