After our half-day trip to Calvert Cliffs which resulted in zero fossilized shark teeth found — and one given to us by a compassionate local — we decided that a thing worth doing was a thing worth doing well, and not having any other plans for the Labor Day weekend got the shabbiest, most cost-effective and affordable cabin available, and started combing the beach.
It worked! Nine teeth total, three of which found during a particularly lucky 15-minute stretch, and one of those which was dropped to the ground by a senior member of our party never to be recovered. So it goes… As luck would have it, another compassionate local — plenty of them are to be found wandering the Calvert Cliffs beaches, it turns out — saw us scrambling to find the tiny shark tooth we lost and gave us two from her own collection, which isn’t the same as finding your own, but it will make for a good dinner table reminiscence-slash-putdown of our fumbling senior.
The whole excercise was particularly enlightening to our middle-schooler, who in short order experienced the value of 1) experience, 2) patience, and 3) serendipity. And being the one whose fossil was lost also 4) forgiveness and 5) understanding. Well, one would hope. I’m pretty sure she stills holds a grudge.