And that's how I ended up in the woods with Mr. Sober. The trees seemed to animate him. He was bouncing around, careful not to step off the trail, but still taking in everything around him. I wandered slowly behind, growing more and more uncomfortable with the only sounds being birds and footsteps.
He stopped suddenly and picked something up. He waited for me to come closer, then gestured for me to open my hand. He gently placed a rock in my palm. It was small, about the size of a large shooting marble, and bumpy.
"Oh, neat," I stared at it. "A rock." I flipped my hand over so it fell to the ground and continued walking.
"No, it's more than just a rock." He scurried down to snatch it off the ground. "It's a rock that could be a geode."
"But how do you find out if it is or now? I thought you had to bust them open or something."
"You do. We'll have to break it open and see what's inside." He carefully tucked the rock in his pocket. "It might not be a geode. It was pretty light for a rock though, so it'll at least be hollow. And did you feel the bumps? That cauliflower texture means it's probably a geode, especially since it's hollow."
"What's the point though? You're going to carry around a rock, go through the effort of breaking it open without destroying it, only for it to probably be nothing?"
"Because it COULD be something. It could be gorgeous. And even if it isn't, that's ok too. It did all it could before I break it open. It's not fair to the rock for me to not even try, just because it might not live up to my expectations of it."
"It's just a rock though," I'm insisting.
"Everything is JUST something," he countered. "That doesn't mean it has less worth or should be valued less by everyone."
I didn't say anything to that. I just kept walking, look at the ground. He fell back behind me, going slower, and I could sense he wasn't as excited about this walk as he was before.