What beats a royal flush?

A Peridot, of course!

First of all, you must pronounce the name of my birth month gemstone correctly to get the full import. It is pronounced thusly: pair-a-doe (a deer, a female deer), or pair-a-dough (as in the bread it will take to buy one). You would never want to be so gauche as to pronounce it pair-a-dot, as this will confirm your general lack of sophistication or your general distaste for the French language.

So, let’s mentally say it together…Peridot. See, you got it!

I don’t bring the gemstone up because I’m bucking for a birthday gift. As an aside, however, for my friend Robin: you only have 66 shopping days left to get me something! We’ll talk about pseudo-birthdays later…

I bring up my gemstone because I recently learned on the Science Channel that it is the only gem that has ever arrived on terra firm via a Pallisite, or for you non-science funky folks, a stony-iron meteorite.

Another aside: my good friend, Kathleen, said she was aware of this factoid and reminded me – appropriately so – that her birth month gemstone, the diamond, enjoys the status of being the only precious gem crushed from coal into its brilliant faceted state by Superman. I always knew she and I had an interesting cosmic connection!

In 1749, a meteorite landed in a desolate area of Siberia. Yet another connection, as my mother is Russian. The meteorite was peppered with luscious Peridot crystals large enough to be set into jewelry. Interestingly, I can remember my mother talking to me about what an unusual birth stone I had when I was in my single digits. Russians are notorious for weaving the most wonderful stories – elements of truth, and elements of the imagined – to teach us life lessons. I wish I had paid this particular story a little more attention, as there was more than a grain of truth to what she was telling me.

I’ve also found out that the Egyptians, whose jewelry making and glass shaping skills are still noted for their other-worldly craftsmanship, were fans of the Peridot and worked the stones as early as 1500 BC. Cleopatra was a devotee of the Peridot.  The Egyptians' arch-enemies, the Romans, were no less enthralled with the stone they referred to as the “evening emerald.” They called it thusly because the stone’s color didn’t darken at night and remained visible in lamplight. By any account, the ultimate romantic mood ring thing…

Eventually, during the 20th century, a Peridot from outer space was gem cut and faceted.

I also find it interesting that the Peridot is a volcanic stone, and one that cools within the Earth’s mantle before it is ejected in magma to form mountain ranges and other land masses. The fact that something could survive the intense heat and pressure of our planet’s Vulcan gyrations is way too cool.

I don’t think my parents could have picked a better birth stone for me if they’d tried. It’s almost as though the gem encompasses, encases so much of my personality. And it’s pretty weird that green has always been my favorite color. FYI: my eyes happen to be green.

So, I have 66 days to strike out and seek a hunk of geological space junk. I doubt I’ll be able to afford the ET version of the rock in question, but that fact can be overlooked. I’ll be happy with some cool green settled into a nice sterling set.