Mine to Shine!

Mining is an age old concept from the times of kings and kingdoms if not earlier, where miners would work endlessly in the pursuit of the finest quality of gold to adorn the members of royalty and to fill the royal treasury. While the array of adornments and the fullness of the coffers displayed the splendour and status of the kings, let’s rewind back a bit into those moments where the miners dug deep into the earth to find such gold.

If one were to expect to see the glittering dazzle of this precious metal in the gold mines in order to recognize it and to excavate it, I’d say they’d be in for a big surprise! After all, buried in the walls of the gold mines, all one would find is dull lumps of muddy metal in the midst of hard rocky walls that would hardly pass for anything precious at first sight. How then, does such a seemingly plain element transform into a mark of superiority and precious value? Here’s the story:

The mined lumps of gold, are melted by subjecting them to extremely high temperatures and in liquid state, in the fiery furnace, the gold is treated with chemicals to remove traces of iron ore and other impurities. The filtered gold is then allowed to boil further to the point where one could see his reflection and at that state of purity, the metal is allowed to cool down. Does the journey end there? No! Having reached the condition where its true value can now be seen in its quality, the metal must be made into something of specific use. Thus comes the crafting part. With hammers and chisels and fine pointed objects, the pure metal is thrashed, stretched out and moulded further into a fine piece of jewellery or artefact, displaying the creator’s mark of craftsmanship, thereby further enhancing its value. At this point, how marvellous is it to the eyes of the beholder, to see such beauty and excellence displayed?!

Interestingly, such is the beauty and potential for excellence contained within us. We all are lumps of gold that get excavated through the mining efforts of our families and education system primarily. When we allow ourselves to be subjected to the refining process of filtering out our character flaws and facing adversities in life with the resilience to pick ourselves up and move on, followed by yielding to the constructive crafting efforts of our parents, teachers and mentors to shape us, we come out shining in character, demonstrating a quality of excellence reflected by the process of transformation we’ve been subjected to! The process may not be easy but if it was, every other metal today could compete in value against gold, couldn’t it?

So think about it! Do you want to remain underground, buried snugly in your comfort zone amidst the muddy grime of ordinariness, where your value though inherent, would remain insignificant and non-impactful? Or do you want to rise above the shackles of mediocrity into the scarce population of the refined - to be the mark of excellence that people would not only love being associated with, but also derive great benefit from? In the words of David Ricardo, “Gold and silver, like other commodities, have an intrinsic value, which is not arbitrary, but is dependent on their scarcity, the quantity of labour bestowed in procuring them, and the value of the capital employed in the mines which produce them.” You live this life but once! So allow yourself to be brought out of your mine  – it’s time you brought out your shine!