By Earl Verbeek

 

"Yes, I could write on mineral collecting, of course, though I am not a notable collector in any normal sense of the term – I do not possess hundreds of "status" or "trophy" specimens, so my name is not whispered in humble reverence in the households of those eminent collectors who are referenced in all periodicals, and though I've spent many years as a field geologist, little of that time was devoted to collecting minerals (only rocks). Fluorescent minerals would be a better bet, though it would serve to deepen the misconception that I am primarily a collector of fluorescent minerals. Yes, I have a large collection, and yes, I've written chapters in a little book on fluorescence, and yes, I was the "concept man" behind the Thomas S. Warren Museum of Fluorescence and still serve as its first curator, but I collect minerals, period. Big ones, small ones, fluorescent and nonfluorescent, ugly and pretty, I study them all. I'm as apt to like a specimen of massive kaolinite as a fine topaz crystal, which puts me wayyyyy, way out there on the fringe of collectors, in the nether regions of that bell curve. Imagine spending your life more than three standard deviations away from most folks – and you want me to write about THAT?"