Glass.

How long will it take for this new Bath Aqua Glass in Bath, England to become sea glass?

Will it ever make its way to an ocean to be tumbled and rubbed, eventually lodging on a beach and then landing in a beachcomber's pocket?

In Don't Sweat the Small Stuff, there is a brilliant short quote something to the effect of "if it's glass, it will break; it's only a matter of when." If you can get your mind around this, then the shock is lessened when something breakable -- perhaps even considered valuable -- meets its demise.

When it happens, how long before the swept up sharp bits and chards become someone else's treasure? Say at low tide on the Annisquam River or the beach at Stage Fort Park in Gloucester, MA?

A part of me wants to know the history of this beautiful, broken, buffed yet cloudy sea glass. But most of me wants to hold on to the romance of it. No history lesson. Just let the sea glass be. After all, what if it wasn't on a transatlantic ship in the 1700's? Do I really want to know that?

Not today.