It’s August 15, 2009. I’d like to share with you a short story from Bits & Pieces’ August 2009 issue by Rick Beyer.

“When Rick Beyer was eight years old, he accompanied his mother and grandmother on a shopping trip. Afterward, they stopped by a fancy hotel for lunch. Beyer ordered Salisbury steak which was served with a side of peas.

Beyer didn’t like peas. And he never ate them whenever or wherever they were served. His grandmother noticed that he was avoiding them and said “Eat your peas.”

To which his mother responded, “Oh, leave him alone. He doesn’t like peas.”

But his grandmother wouldn’t let it go and offered her grandson a deal, “I’ll give you five dollars if you eat all of your peas.”

Now this thoroughly outraged Beyer’s mother. She never forced her son to eat things he did not like-and she probably didn’t appreciate her mother’s interference. But to a young boy-oblivious to the nuances of parenthood and usurped authority-the promise of five dollars outweighed an aversion for certain vegetables. Beyer accepted the bribe. He choked down the peas as his grandmother glared at him, and his mother glared at both of them.

Weeks later, Beyer’s grandmother left to visit with other family members and, more likely, muscle in on uncharted parental territory there. That night, Beyer’s mom fixed one of his favorite meals-meat loaf and mashed potatoes. She also served a huge, steaming bowl of peas. She spooned a generous portion of peas onto his plate and said” You ate them for money. You can eat them for love.”

There was nothing he could say to defend his dislike for peas. That five-dollar deal completely lacked any of the brilliance it had on the day it was made. The fact that the money was long gone only made matters worse.

And so the moral of this story is: Don’t do for money what you won’t do for love. But there’s another equally important lesson to be learned here and that is: Mom always wins.

Now that Beyer is grown he swears he still hates peas, but doesn’t dare say anything to his mother when she serves them.”

Love,

Fred

It’s July 2009. I’d like to share a little story that one of our clients recently shared with us. By the end of it, I think you see that sometimes a bird in the hand is NOT better than two in the bush and to what lengths the world will go through to get their hands/beaks on a Diamond Cutters International diamond.

"We were in the Dominican Republic for the wedding of my college friends. It was a lovely morning, and we decided to start the day off with a hot stone massage at the resort’s spa. Outside of the spa were two beautiful parrots, one male, one female, who attracted the local tourists with their calls of “Hola” and their spirited giggles. As we took time to observe the birds, another spectator mentioned that one of them was looking for someone’s arm to climb upon. Erica, being adventurous, decided that it was only right for her to offer her arm to one of the parrots. Little did she know what this bird really had in mind! The parrot slowly made his way up her arm. As he found a comfortable spot on her arm, a voice in the background said, “Wow, she’s the brave one!” It seemed as if the parrot became restless, because it wasn’t long before he was pacing up and down Erica’s arm. He finally made his way back down her arm and relaxed, or so we thought. Turns out, the parrot only wanted to be closer to the shiny bling on her finger… yes, he had his eyes on the diamond! Thinking that the parrot was ready to climb off her arm, everyone was laughing and enjoying the scene until seconds later when the parrot suddenly grabbed and began clutching and squeezing the diamond of Erica’s engagement ring in its beak. (Yes, that hurt!) With all the excitement, a crowd started to make its way to the action. After about 20 minutes of struggling, pleading, and attempting to trick the parrot in any way imaginable, Erica found a way to release her finger from its diamond death grip. Happy that she had finally gotten her finger away from the parrot, she was relieved… until she actually took a look at her finger. The band of her engagement ring was still there, but… the diamond was gone! Yes! The diamond was gone! Absolutely shocked, Erica let out a scream… OH MY GOD! The diamond is gone! At that time, I felt my jaws drop to the ground as I made my way towards the parrot for dissection! Freaking out, we were all trying to figure out how to get the diamond out of this parrot’s mouth before he dropped it, or heaven forbid, swallowed it. I put my hand towards the parrot’s mouth and he bit me twice! He was busy trying to chew the diamond, as if it was birdseed! At that point, I began to feel as if it was the end of the VS! By then, it was absolute panic! One of the local workers came over to assist by distracting the parrot with a stick. Needless to say, their trick didn’t work. The women inside the spa also came out to provide their assistance which only ruffled the parrot’s feathers even more. At this time, the female parrot began to become very protective of her male counterpart as he was trying to crack the diamond in his mouth. The only sign of hope was the fact that we could see the parrot rolling the diamond in his mouth around as he continued to try to crack it open. With a distractive move, someone somehow made the parrot turn his head in the opposite direction quickly causing the diamond to drop out of his mouth. Whew! Big sigh of relief! But all was not well! Satisfied that the diamond was no longer in danger of being swallowed, problem #2 was right around the corner! The diamond had fallen right into the crack of a coral reef textured water basin that the birds were sitting on. After even more mayhem with people attempting to remove the diamond with lovely objects such as screwdrivers and ink pens, the ladies from the spa provided us with tweezers to carefully retrieve the diamond out of the crevice. Finally the diamond was back in our hands, with much relief and satisfaction. And after all that stress, it was only right that we had one of the best massages ever!"

Love, Fred