Here's A Pickle Of A Question!

[silverphoenix]

So say you have a loved one who thinks fossiling/rock hunting is uncool and embarassing--what would you say to them? Unfortunately some of us have to deal with this and I'm curious to know how everyone would respond to such comments (fossil hunting is childish/you can't fossil hunt forever/fossil hunting embarasses me/etc.)

***I'm not asking for personal advice, merely asking an interesting question because I know there are those of us who have to deal with such nonsense

"Hit the road" is a common reply, but I'm looking for the "other" responses

[Seldom]

I have been a treasure hunter since I was 16 or 17 YO my family thought that was the stupid thing in the world but when I started buying house's and cars they changed their mine. When you land that job making 300 grant a year in the oil business they will come around don't worry about it. Just tell them it's part of your education.

[siteseer]

So say you have a loved one who thinks fossiling/rock hunting is uncool and embarassing--what would you say to them? Unfortunately some of us have to deal with this and I'm curious to know how everyone would respond to such comments (fossil hunting is childish/you can't fossil hunt forever/fossil hunting embarasses me/etc.)

Silverphoenix,

Someone with no interest in science might equate fossil hunting with walking around a beach with a metal detector, a hobby for an old man who doesn't comb his hair and who likes to wear black socks. You could paraphrase the line from "Raiders of the Lost Ark," and while gesturing with one arm expansively, say, "Baby, you and I are merely passing through history. Then, while holding up a fossil, declare, "This IS history." You could add that from a single tooth or bone you can ascertain the approximate size and structure of the rest of the animal.

If you doubt that will impress her, appeal to her romantic/creative side by paraphrasing Christopher Walken's character in "Man on Fire," "Baby, a man can be an artist in anything: stone, paint, words, food - anything if his soul is true to it. Well, my art is paleontology and you want me to stop painting my masterpiece."

You can leave off "Baby" and substitute your own term of endearment.

[PaleoPutz]

I just tell them the truth...... I'm a nerd.....

[Cole]

I recently showed my older brother an Ammonite fossil and explained to him that this here is 180 million years old...to which he replied, "Thats impossible!" He told me that I need to find God, because the bible says nothing in the universe is older then 7000 years.

I guess he thinks I am stupid or something...the feelings are mutual. lol

Cole~

[tracer]

people who are worried about what others think have their own issues which have nothing to do with rocks. i've told my kids to be practical about their self-consciousness. if someone will impact on their life in some manner, then their thoughts matter. but otherwise, not so much.

if i feel like acting silly, or strange, or whatever, i usually do it. my kids have become fairly used to it, and in a semi-horrified way seem to admire my lack of social anxiety at certain junctures. but then i'm all business in certain settings.

more specifically on topic, a person who thinks rock hunting or fossil collecting is embarrassing has both too much self-consciousness, self-esteem issues, and a distorted view of the hobby. some people carry their interests in their environments into adulthood, without tuning their surroundings out and making them mere white noise, as most "adults" end up doing, so they can focus on their own drama. a lack of broad interests in things connotes an uninquisitive mind. but it is a reverse syllogism, and therefore illogical, to say that because children have inquisitive minds, and i have one, that i'm a child. i'm not. and fossils rule! and when we figure out how to do the jurassic park thing, the dinos will know which of us to thank and which of us to eat.

[Bear]

I agree with what Tracer said.

I do not care what others think of what I do unless they are in a position to interfere. I am quite used to doing my own thinking and am very clear that my education, ability and experience trump most folks. I am also clear that most people think that I am loony. Since my wife and son come along on my adventures and seem to have a good time and are most supportive, I don't really need any further validation from the peanut gallery.

Folks disparage my physical fitness thing too, many of those my age that have done so are now dead, disabled or debilitated while I still run my 7 miles a day (with my Labrador! ), am healthy as a horse and look about 10 years younger than I actually am. I will keep my style, thanks.

Like they say - the proof is in the pudding.

[Auspex]

Everyone is the same in different ways.

(Why sweat the details?)

[pleecan]

Life is too short to worry about the trivial stuff.......yes I am still child like inside carrying out unfinished business and loving it... as you get older... I am approaching 50,... Do not care what people think about my fossil hunting. I started collecting late yet I find the hobby most intrigueing and rewarding......the wonders of awe of discovery! Eureka!!.... enjoy the moment, and enjoy the fossil hunt! as time waits for no one. PL

Edited December 29, 2009 by pleecan

[glacialerratic]

Back when my wife and I were dating, we were sitting on the beach (L. MI.), watching the sunset. I was, of course, picking up any rock within arm's reach, when I found a split stone with a nice trilo pygidium inside. With a cross look, she asked, "Do these things follow you around or what?" With a smile I replied, "Why yes, they do!"

These days, she's even said she wishes she liked fossils, so she could join me on my trips, but they just haven't inspired her that much yet. She even imagines all kinds of silly thoughts run through my head when I find something cool, when it's really just the joy and satisfaction of touching a part of the Earth's history. But it's good we each have our own things to do in our free-time.

To the nay-sayers, I'd offer up that it's having a passion, any passion, that makes life worth living -- I could care less what others' think of my passion (fossil hunting), and frankly, there are passions that others' hold I could care less about, but I wouldn't deny their right to have them and I find no benefit in denigration.

To each their own!

[JohnJ]

So say you have a loved one who thinks fossiling/rock hunting is uncool and embarassing--what would you say to them? Unfortunately some of us have to deal with this and I'm curious to know how everyone would respond to such comments (fossil hunting is childish/you can't fossil hunt forever/fossil hunting embarasses me/etc.)

***I'm not asking for personal advice, merely asking an interesting question because I know there are those of us who have to deal with such nonsense

"Hit the road" is a common reply, but I'm looking for the "other" responses

Ask Dan....

[MikeD]

(fossil hunting is childish/you can't fossil hunt forever/fossil hunting embarasses me/etc.)

1. Uh-uh, Na na na na na (sung in a childish manner while snoopy dancing)

2. Who says? I'll keep at it until I die.

3. And what?

etc.

You forgot "What are you going to do with all of those fossils, anyway?"

[jkfoam]

Silverphoenix,

I know you spend a lot of time collecting fossils at Whiskey Bridge and collecting petrified wood around Texas so... Don't tell people you collect fossils and rocks. Tell them that you are a Cenozoic Paleomalacologist specializing in the Texas Eocene and that you also collect angiosperm and conifer pseudomorph silica specimens. Everybody loves a specialist, nobody understands them but they love them.

JKFoam

[RJB]

Ditto to what Jkfoam said. I could spit out alot of stuff of what I would tell someone, but cant say that here! Ha!!!

RB

[tracer]

yeah, ole jkf can spin a word or four. i kinda like it. it has panache.

[Shamalama]

Someone with no interest in science might equate fossil hunting with walking around a beach with a metal detector, a hobby for an old man who doesn't comb his hair and who likes to wear black socks.

Ummm... how old is old?

[Ramo]

Be careful what you say, I heard someone say the other day...

Marriage is grand....Divorce is several grand.

[barefootgirl]

I get called a nerd all the time by my family members and considering how stupid I think they are I take it as a compliment and always say thank you. :D

Now my mom is another story, sometimes it's hard to hear my mother tell me no man will ever want a women with so many "rocks and dead things" in her house and how I need to be more feminine and girly(puke). She assures me I am to abnormal for any normal man to accept and you know what I tell her. GOOD! I want an oddball just like me. I am unique and I deserve someone just as unique as me. :D

You just have to ignore the haters and keep on being true to yourself.

[32fordboy]

My family doesn't understand the fossil thing. Neither do my friends. They don't understand why I'd want "dead things". As far as I am concerned, that's their problem Dead things are cool. Unless it's fresh.

nick

[Seldom]

Now my mom is another story, sometimes it's hard to hear my mother tell me no man will ever want a women with so many "rocks and dead things" in her house and how I need to be more feminine and girly(puke).

The perfect women

[Tony Eaton]

Regarding Barefootgirl's statement, yep, plenty of guys would deem those fossil hunting qualities as

ideal. I'm always happy when my wife goes fossil hunting with me or shows interest in paleontology.

Regarding SilverPheonix's point of other's embarrassment, I'd give some ground up where it is easy, i.e. "rocks" in the front yard, put them in the back yard. "Too much time" hunting for fossils, balance it out with other activities. Here are some things you can say.

1) good exercise

2) keep you mentally engaged

3) your in community with generally intelligent people

4) you are collecting things of scientific and/or monitary value versus spending it at the golf course or for football tickets or whatever.

The thing is is that if you were to give up this hobby, certainly something would take its place. Other the same token this other person may find a hobby or activity similarly "exotic" and the shoe will be on the other foot one day.

Okay, I need to stop watching Dr. Phil. Good luck!

[Phoenixflood]

SP, I have one of those too. My fiancé just doesn't understand the appeal of a fossil hunting expedition. She bores easily. Finds are just not a big enough reward for her no matter how I explain it: History, no, Geology, no, Monetary value, no and no matter what the find. She has gone on a few trips with me though. However, she is more into rock hounding than fossils so I try to combine the two.

Understand that people all have different hobbies and different views of certain hobbies. Just because she doesn't like it as much as me doesn't mean she doesn't understand that it is important to me.

[siteseer]

SP, I have one of those too. My fiancé just doesn't understand the appeal of a fossil hunting expedition. She bores easily.

Yeah, one time, I checked out a roadcut with a friend and his girlfriend. She wandered with us for a while but then got bored and happened to have a fold-out chair and a book to read.

[Bear]

...I'm always happy when my wife goes fossil hunting with me or shows interest in paleontology.

Ditto here. My wife teaches martial arts, sword fighting and is a real jock, my kind of girl. She also collects interesting rocks, though fossils are of less interest to her than those. I will never forget an afternoon when son, dog and I sheltered under a tree to escape from the 103 deg F heat while the wife flung dirt into the air digging up loose quartz crystals on the edge of a 150 foot drop on the side of a mountain outside of Mt. Ida, AK. Sometimes she is tougher than the rest of us, and we are over the top compared to most folks.

...However, she is more into rock hounding than fossils so I try to combine the two.

A trip to Bancroft, Ontario should put you so far into the good that she would willingly go along fossil hunting without complaint for quite some time thereafter may be called for then. They call it "The Rockhounds Paradise" with good reason...finding emeralds at the Beryl Pit Quarry, hiking up to the abandoned Craigmont mine and finding sapphire crystals just lying on the ground, sodalite from Andy at the Princess Mine, more crystals than you can shake a stick at in the road cuts or a pleasant afternoon in the rose quartz quarry...not to mention the facet - grade apatite surface collected at the Bear Creek Digs. It ain't all that far to go either.

[Ron E.]

Just turned 50. I explain that it's my midlife crisis. Heck of a lot cheaper than a Corvette or an affair...