The Green Diamond

"The real voyage of discovery is not in seeking new landscapes but in having new eyes."

Greene Street Bridge at night. | Greenville, North Carolina | March 23, 2025

A drunk fella in a bar once told me a story about a farmer who got sick of farming. His land was fertile and the crops always grew but the work was hard and come plowing and planting season his field always had big dumb rocks to deal with. For years the farmer had heard talk of people getting rich mining gold and gemstones in the depths and streams of mountains out West and finally one year, the farmer sold the farm and left for the mountains.

Meanwhile the new farmer got to tilling the land and he, too, came upon the big dumb rocks. Piled them together in a corner of the field thinking maybe he could find some use for them. One day it rained and the big rocks looked pretty all clean so took a few inside and decorated his mantle with them.

Some time later after he grew and harvested his crops and began selling them a merchant passed through. When the merchant saw the rocks on the farmer’s mantle, he gasped in …