Last night we celebrated our 27th wedding anniversary with dear friends at The Palms. The cuisine was amazing! Filet mignon, etc… down to the key lime pie. My oh my! It was restaurant week in the Dallas/Ft. Worth area, so there were so many great deals on menus at a number of fine dining places.

On the way there in the car, I was looking at two rings on my fingers.

One was my wedding ring and next to it on my pinkie finger was a costume jewelery ring made out of glass. In the surface sunlight shining through the window, it was impossible to tell which was authentic and which was fake. Both sparkled like diamonds in the sunrays.

Only a gemologist can tell the difference. It isn’t seen with the naked eye either. He needs a special magnifying glass to look deep inside the stone to know if it real. When he looks through his glass, he investigates several things: clarity, color, depth, occlusions, carats, etc… He knows what to look for. And most diamonds, although authentic, are not flawless. Other minerals adhere to the stone as it is pressed and compacted during the mineral forming process of time, heat, and pressure. Those deposits show up as imperfections. Still they do not ruin the authenticity of the stone and often not even the beauty. It just depends on how many imperfections there are and how big they are. Definitely imperfections have a bearing on the final value of the stone.

Later, I was thinking about diamonds and choosing a mate. How does one know if he or she has chosen someone authentic or fake?

I was thinking about the recent break up of Mel Gibson and the Russian model he was living with. The whole ordeal was very publicized and sad — the terrible things he said to her before he left her — all of those things were about the way she looked, her body, her clothes, her manner, the authenticity of her body. He became disgusted with her, although she was beautiful outwardly. Still he found disappointment in her.

While I admit, a little paint on the barn doesn’t help its sale-ability, there are more important things to buying a barn than the good paint job. How about the foundation, the structure, and the frame? And it’s the same with choosing a marriage partner.

Real gems are worth waiting for. Time does not diminish their beauty. They stand the test of every light: the limelight and the search light. But I must admit, diamonds are best enjoyed in candlelight.