There once was an oyster whose story I tell,
Who found that some sand had got into his shell.
It was only a gram but it gave him a pain,
For oysters have feelings for all they’re so plain.
Now did he berate, the harsh workings of fate,
That had led him to such a deplorable fate?
Did he curse out the government, call for election,
Or say that the sea should have offered protection?
No, he said to himself, as he lay on the shelf,
Since I cannot remove, I shall try to improve it.
Now the years rolled around as the years always do,
And he came to his ultimate destiny – stew.
And the same grain of sand that had bothered him so,
Was a beautiful pearl all richly aglow.
Now the tale has a moral, for isn’t it grand
What an oyster can do with a morsel of sand?
What couldn’t we do if we’d only begin
With some of the things that get under our skin!
– Author unknown
From the November 1979 issue of Junonia
