He was a bold man who ate the first oyster

I think the most inspiring animal in the world is the oyster. Just think about it. Oysters are slimy, dirty, and ugly looking with a very hard shell that does not open up easily. In spite of this, they are strong enough to withstand the sands of time and all of the elements of the ocean. They stay all together in various corners of the sea, come in many varieties, and congregate in many parts of the world. Despite all of this, with everything that goes bad in their lives, be it dirt or parasites inside their body, oysters persevere and transform all the bad things into a beautiful pearl.

Pearl formation in mollusks is actually a sort of defense mechanism. Pearls are formed when a bit of sand, grit, or any foreign object makes its way between a mollusk’s mantle and shell. The clam recognizes the object as an irritant and coats it in layers of nacre (what the inside, pearlescent part of clam shells are made out of), making a larger, but less rough and prettier version of the intrusive object.

Nowadays, the round pearls you see used in jewelry are cultured by humans inserting small, perfectly round objects into a certain species of freshwater oysters to make them produce perfectly spheroid pearls. It’s essentially an art of perpetually annoying the oysters to have them produce beautiful things.