ABSTRACT
This chapter explores how meaning is made, how meaningfulness can grow out of meaninglessness. It examines a case of the emergence and dissolution of the meaning of some Chilean rocks. The chapter analyzes how rocks from the depth of the earth, without mineral value, can become gifts fit for a Queen. The Oxford English Dictionary defines "rock" as "the solid mineral material forming part of the surface of the earth and other similar planets." The rocks are an aspect of the miners' biography, and in this particular case, represent the entrapped miners. The stillness of each rock bearing silent testimony to the weighty, timeless claustrophobia of being trapped under 700m of rock for sixty-nine days. In the grand setting of Buckingham palace, President Pinera handed the Queen one rock on a blue velvet box, as if it were a jewellery in it precious showcase.
