Previous Challenge Entry (Level 4 – Masters)
Topic: Crystal (04/24/25)
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TITLE: Down a Rabbit Hole | Previous Challenge Entry
By Wilma Schlegel
05/01/25 -
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I had told him, “I won’t be sitting, looking at a blank computer screen”. When he came in to check on me, I was looking at a blank computer screen. Hmmmm.
I played the ‘what do you think of when you hear the word?’ game.
First, when I think of the word crystal, I think of clarity (which I wasn’t feeling). I think of pristine rivers and streams. I think of minerals. I think of watch crystals.
I didn’t know what the crystal of a watch is. My google search revealed that it is that part of the watch which receives electrical current from a battery. That current causes the crystal (apparently quartz) to vibrate at a certain frequency (32,768 times per second!). My small mind wonders who discovered this? And how did they discover it and how did they measure it? I could have chosen that path of inquiry, but I went a different route 'down a rabbit hole'
While reading I found so many interesting words and details. Quartz is, for example, a type of trigonal (related to or shaped like a triangle) crystal at room temperature and a hexagonal crystal above 573°C (1,063°F). Who heated it to that temperature (and how)? How did they measure it? How does all this go on and I have no clue these things have been accomplished and studied?
Next, I went on ‘down my rabbit hole’ to try to visualize the various shapes of quartz crystals. One thing was as clear as mud – a lot of the information I read was difficult to understand (OK, way over my head!).
I happened on a reference to the Herkimer diamond. This got my attention. I love diamonds! Well, Herkimer diamonds are quartz crystals with natural facets on both ends. They were discovered within outcrops of dolomite In Herkimer County, New York, USA. I continued down this ‘diamond-strewn’ path of research to find Cape May diamonds.
Cape May diamonds look to my untrained eye, like sea glass polished by water and sand into the shape of rounded pebbles. They have been mistaken for just that but are actually quartz crystals. These are still sought out successfully by beachcombers and/or can be bought at souvenir shops. They are apparently plentiful at a place called Sunset Beach and also Higbee Beach Wildlife Management Area, New Jersey, USA. Higbee Beach is also noted as apparently hosting the World Series of Birding. (This has nothing to do with crystals, but it was an interesting tributary I found down my ‘rabbit hole’). Who even knew about this event? Oh, the things I’m finding in my google search!
Back to Cape May diamonds -
They were well-known by the Kechemeche people, a Lenni Lenape tribe of North Americans who searched for and used the diamonds for trading purposes. They first introduced the diamonds to the Europeans when they gave one, as a token of good will, to explorer Christopher Leaming in 1690. He sent it to Antwerp, Holland, where it was cut and polished into a 20-carat, emerald-cut 'diamond.' (A 20-carat diamond is about .69 inches in diameter.)
Where does my rabbit hole end? For this sitting it has to end here, time is a defining factor.
There are so many other things that have become crystal clear.
I’ve got a lot more learning to do and places to travel to! Praise you, Lord!
Also- Humankind has been given so much potential to learn, to discover and to understand, how incredible is the human mind. But far above and beyond all of our capacity for wisdom and knowledge there is He who is omniscient and created all heaven and earth, our eternal father, our God.
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Oh, the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are His judgements and decisions and how unfathomable and untraceable are His ways. Romans 11:33-36 Amplified Bible
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