Multinational minerals

.This is a row of bowls made from polished stone. They are so thin as to be translucent, and the sun reflects off them as if they were made of water.

We are in Tucson, and today we walked through booth after booth at the annual gem and mineral show. My father-in-law and his wife love rocks--gems, though they don't wear jewelry; fossils, though they don't believe in evolution. They just love to look at, hold, and sometimes own beautiful things.

They are not alone. People come to this show from all over the world, some to sell, some to buy. One year we bought amber from Poland; the next year, garnets from Alaska. This year we didn't buy anything, but we admired rubies from Thailand and Myanmar. The bowls in the picture were made in India.