2 posts tagged “diamonds”
On the way to pick up eldest daughter at preschool, I heard a radio spot for a jewely store (you may not be familiar with the term "radio". It's like an MP3, but free to be picked off the airwaves with a tuner, crazy as that sounds, but the trade-off being the commercials, but that's the impetus for this story).
The ad was touting why a buyer would want to choose their pieces over the competition for their servicing of
"soon-to-be heirloom" jewelry gifts.
That turn of phrase struck me. I think it was a jab, but having just been struck, I could have mistaken it for a hook.
An odd tableau played out in my head as I reeled (and signaled with my left turn blinker at a light.)
Picture a middle-aged man sitting on a porch, overlooking a wooded valley and in the rocker next to him, a bored looking 20 something busy texting his peeps on his blackberry.
Old guy leans over and rips one, then dangles a watch over to the crack-berry head.
"Son, this watch has been passed down, from pocket to pocket for the better part of five minutes now, and I'd like you to have it. Remember its history and what it represents about the family as you treasure it for the next month or so."
Instant, soon-to-be heirloom indeed.
I don't know whether the root lies in the microwave oven or the drive-through window, but our cultural lack of patience for something to become special over time seems to diminish the power of words in the vein of heirloom and antique.
These things acquire a meaning because of their age, their craft, the events they have survived that separate themselves from us in history.
Our lack of patience for them to become special robs them of meaning when we bandy about these words without their meanings, robbing us both of character.
My afternoon mood was salvaged when eldest handed me her painted hand-print snowman picture project and the 19 month-old made a successful deposit on her training potty upon the return home.
Eldest's project will be archived and will have some meaning when she shows it to her own kids later. It will acquire a specialness even greater than it merits today.
Youngest's project, while celebrated, was flushed.
With it, the notion of the "soon-to-be heirloom".
For anniversary this year, wife went out and got my ring repaired.
Now it's back where it belongs.
Hers will be in the shop a short while longer as she's upgrading diamonds, chopping the suspension, adding spinner rims, custom blue neon running lights, and a NOS boost system. Oh yeah, I almost forgot, and a dancing hula girl doll for the dashboard playing a ukulele.
But you know, I'm going to miss the vitriol in the stares from the self-appointed local keepers of piety when we go out in public with the kids.
I'll have to savor the short time when I have a ring, and we have the kids together, but wife doesn't have her ring back yet. For people who are looking for something to feel scandalous about, that could only mean that I'm a married man who's had kids with his mistress and am taking them out shopping behind my wife's back. Let the tongues wag.
