Okay, fella, take a deep breath; it’s not about some starlet on the red carpet. So, eyes up. Well, maybe not fully up, but on her necklace and its gems, instead. Cleavage is a term mineralogists and gemologists use to describe a breaking plane in a crystal, and gems, as most solids are, are crystalline substances.
Cleavage? Think pages in a book. You can separate the pages parallel to their surfaces, but not perpendicularly without ripping them (that’s covered by another mineralogical term: fracture). Many minerals exhibit characteristic separation planes like book pages. Even diamond.
Gemologists take advantage of the cleavage planes to “cut” diamonds, the hardest of naturally occurring substances. They “read” the planes and strike the diamonds at just the right angle to effect the separation, just as you might insert a fingernail to separate pages. Walla! With just the right angles of strike, pieces of diamond break off, and we get a beautiful gem ready for setting in a starlet’s necklace.
Light reflecting off diamond’s facets (or faces) gives it a glassy luster.* The starlet and her idolizers gathered near the red carpet might be ignorant of the science behind the gem’s flashing. Photons not only pass through it along paths determined by its ordered carbon atoms, but also bounce off its angled faces, giving it the luster for which starlets pay big bucks. The dancing light, like the flashes from cameras held by paparazzi elbowing for a picture, catches the attention of all the eyes not focused on that other kind of cleavage.
You know the old saying about testing a diamond. “See whether or not it will scratch glass.” Trust me; it will. When Lucy excitedly runs into a house eager to show her engagement ring to assembled family, including her spinster distrustful aunt, she might be met with “Will it scratch glass?”
Lucy, if she understands mineralogy, might respond, “Aunt Maple, this will scratch the engine block on your 1985 Chevy.”**
In fact, diamond will scratch not only steel, but also corundum, the mineral group from which we get rubies. Hardness is the term for scratchability. In diamond, nature has given us a hard substance that is easy to cleave but incredibly difficult to scratch. Strength, beauty, and weakness characterize this mineral that plays tricks with light and serves as a good analog for humans.
Even the strongest and most brilliant have weaknesses. Supposed strength and brilliance is what draws paparazzi and gawkers to “red carpets” of any kind. They see the glitter. They assume strength of some kind, even strength of character the adoring public transfers and projects from fictional character to actress. Of course, some paparazzo or other also wants to capture cleavage of not just of physical but rather and especially of psychological nature. There’s nothing like exposing a plane of weakness for selling photos.
We live in an Age of Cleavage, a time when would-be photogemologists and rumormineralogists look for planes of weakness in the lives of others. Many spend their lives lining red carpets, rather than trying to walk on them.
Just remember that if you tend to idolize someone, the gem you see has weaknesses that are not unlike your own. Luster of the most glassy gems derives from some sort of cleaving. We can take this at least two ways: All raw materials need some refinement; all refined materials had a different appearance before being shaped into what we desire, admire, or envy. Something of the original had to be separated, broken off. Something of the original lost.
And what of your own luster? What cleavage did you undergo to reveal facets? Where are your hidden planes of weakness?
* Luster is a property that reflected light gives to the surface of a mineral: “glassy,” “metallic,” or “earthy,” for example.
** The setting, however, might be made of gold, a soft metal, so keep the hood closed and avoid the test.
Cleavage? Think pages in a book. You can separate the pages parallel to their surfaces, but not perpendicularly without ripping them (that’s covered by another mineralogical term: fracture). Many minerals exhibit characteristic separation planes like book pages. Even diamond.
Gemologists take advantage of the cleavage planes to “cut” diamonds, the hardest of naturally occurring substances. They “read” the planes and strike the diamonds at just the right angle to effect the separation, just as you might insert a fingernail to separate pages. Walla! With just the right angles of strike, pieces of diamond break off, and we get a beautiful gem ready for setting in a starlet’s necklace.
Light reflecting off diamond’s facets (or faces) gives it a glassy luster.* The starlet and her idolizers gathered near the red carpet might be ignorant of the science behind the gem’s flashing. Photons not only pass through it along paths determined by its ordered carbon atoms, but also bounce off its angled faces, giving it the luster for which starlets pay big bucks. The dancing light, like the flashes from cameras held by paparazzi elbowing for a picture, catches the attention of all the eyes not focused on that other kind of cleavage.
You know the old saying about testing a diamond. “See whether or not it will scratch glass.” Trust me; it will. When Lucy excitedly runs into a house eager to show her engagement ring to assembled family, including her spinster distrustful aunt, she might be met with “Will it scratch glass?”
Lucy, if she understands mineralogy, might respond, “Aunt Maple, this will scratch the engine block on your 1985 Chevy.”**
In fact, diamond will scratch not only steel, but also corundum, the mineral group from which we get rubies. Hardness is the term for scratchability. In diamond, nature has given us a hard substance that is easy to cleave but incredibly difficult to scratch. Strength, beauty, and weakness characterize this mineral that plays tricks with light and serves as a good analog for humans.
Even the strongest and most brilliant have weaknesses. Supposed strength and brilliance is what draws paparazzi and gawkers to “red carpets” of any kind. They see the glitter. They assume strength of some kind, even strength of character the adoring public transfers and projects from fictional character to actress. Of course, some paparazzo or other also wants to capture cleavage of not just of physical but rather and especially of psychological nature. There’s nothing like exposing a plane of weakness for selling photos.
We live in an Age of Cleavage, a time when would-be photogemologists and rumormineralogists look for planes of weakness in the lives of others. Many spend their lives lining red carpets, rather than trying to walk on them.
Just remember that if you tend to idolize someone, the gem you see has weaknesses that are not unlike your own. Luster of the most glassy gems derives from some sort of cleaving. We can take this at least two ways: All raw materials need some refinement; all refined materials had a different appearance before being shaped into what we desire, admire, or envy. Something of the original had to be separated, broken off. Something of the original lost.
And what of your own luster? What cleavage did you undergo to reveal facets? Where are your hidden planes of weakness?
* Luster is a property that reflected light gives to the surface of a mineral: “glassy,” “metallic,” or “earthy,” for example.
** The setting, however, might be made of gold, a soft metal, so keep the hood closed and avoid the test.
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