I am going to give you quick instructions on how to make real diamonds to own, love, and cherish for the rest of your life.  Forget about the synthetic stuff made under laboratory conditions; I am talking about the real diamonds we dig out of the ground.

First of all, get yourself a good amount of carbon dioxide.  That shouldn’t be so hard these days, we spew out twelve billion tons of it every day and you can have as much of it as you can collect; for free!

Dig a hole in the ground to at least 150 kilometre depth.  drop the carbon dioxide in the hole and then fill the rest with rocks and earth, making sure you apply 300 metric tons per square centimetre on the carbon dioxide.

Apply heat of approximately 1,200 degrees centigrade. Now wait; for something like two billion years or so.

If you are lucky, there might be a volcanic eruption that will bring out your cooking carbon dioxide / diamonds close to the surface of the earth.  If not, then I am afraid you have to go down in person and bring the material up very quickly so it cools down rapidly.

Take your rough diamonds to an expert so he/she might cut and polish it to a beautiful and highly desirable object that you worked so hard and waited so long for.

There is, however, a quicker and infinitely more rewarding way of making real diamonds.  First, find someone to love and for them to love you back.  Then start a family and have a child, two or more; it’s up to you.

Now comes the hardest part.  Bring them up to be honest, decent, balanced, loving and highly principled human beings.  I promise you; they will shine more brightly than the best diamonds you can ever wish for.

There are differences, of course.  You may not live for two billion years while, the chances are you will live long enough to enjoy having your children within 9 months plus labour, then you get to polish them yourself, for a limited period of time.  The stones don’t care about you at all, while your children love you unconditionally.

They say ‘diamonds are forever’.  That may be true but these stones are only yours until you pass away.  Your children however are never yours but, they fill your life with immeasurable joy and pride.  They also carry your DNA and pass it on down the generations.

The celebrated Lebanese poet Gibran Khalil Gibran who died 90 years ago wrote this beautiful poem about children:

And a woman who held a babe against her bosom said:
Speak to us of Children.  And he said:
Your children are not your children.
They are the sons and daughters of Life’s longing for itself.
They come through you but not from you,
And though they are with you yet they belong not to you.

You may give them your love but not your thoughts,
For they have their own thoughts.
You may house their bodies but not their souls,
For their souls dwell in the house of tomorrow, which you cannot visit, not even in your dreams.
You may strive to be like them, but seek not to make them like you.
For life goes not backward nor tarries with yesterday.
You are the bows from which your children as living arrows are sent forth.
The archer sees the mark upon the path of the infinite, and He bends you with His might that His arrows may go swift and far.
Let your bending in the archer’s hand be for gladness;
For even as He loves the arrow that flies, so He loves also the bow that is stable.

Now, which do you prefer: the cold, hard and overly priced substance; or the warm, loving, and loveable human beings that you call your children?

Mufid