The Writers' Circle

The Oil company had been drilling in the same area for nearly two years before it found anything. Alas for the company, what it finally struck was not oil but something altogether different. Instead of an underground pool of black gold, it had drilled through to a well of what appeared to be white coloured water.
The disappointed drillers left the rig that night and walked wearily to their accommodation. They knew that the next day they would have to return to dismantle the rig and start drilling somewhere else.

When they returned the following morning, it was noticed that the pools of water that had been laying on the ground overnight had formed into crystals. Each crystal was roughly the size of a marble, was quite hard and had a dull white finish.
The drillers had not come across this phenomenon before, and so they gathered them up and sent them to the company lab for analysis.

Extensive tests were carried out on the crystals, and when the lab report came back it stated that:
They were made of an unidentified substance being neither organic or mineral. They had poor insulation qualities and could not conduct electricity. They were non edible, non toxic, non flammable and non just about everything else. They also degraded, and had an estimated life span of 30-40 years before they would become brittle and crumble into dust.
The only really interesting thing about them was that each one was slightly different, in the way that each fingerprint or snowflake is.

The company called them x347f crystals, but everyone else called them Newtown rocks after the nearest town to the drilling site.

As far as anyone knew, the crystals or rocks were not found anywhere else in the world. 
The company having discovered them, now looked around for an application of its new product. There appeared to be very little that could be done with them. The cost of extracting them made them too expensive for use in construction or industry, and they seemed to be about as useful as ditch-water.
They toyed with the idea of just leaving them in the ground, but a lot of time and effort had been spent, and the company needed to see a return of some sort.
Somebody suggested that as they had no commercial use, the crystals should just be marketed as they were. 
As each Newtown rock was slightly different to all the others, this appeared to be its only selling point.
After-all, the theory went, people bought platinum jewelery on its rarity value alone. Despite platinum being less pleasing to the eye than gold or chrome, and more expensive to boot. 
No-one could think of a better idea, and so a few months later Newtown rocks were launched with the slogan "As individual as you are"
Somewhat surprisingly, this caught the public's imagination. Although the rocks had neither the brilliance of diamonds, nor the colour or shine of precious metals, they were cheap enough that everyone could afford one or two, and people went out and bought them.

They would be given as presents, put onto key-rings and necklaces. Used as lucky charms and ornaments. Fairly soon everyone owned at least one, and people would meet over coffee to discuss the relative merits of each others rocks. For an inanimate object, they rapidly became a thing of personal pride, and people would become quite distraught if they lost their rock.
Although the rocks were useless, unproductive and not even particularly pretty, because they were all different each one was special to those that had them.

There is a moral to this little story. It is that everyone is an individual, and no matter how bright or dull, how useful or otherwise they are, they will not be here forever so look after them, and they will give you comfort in return.