I never expected to fashion rings, these trite testaments to symbolism and deeper meaning. Silver, gold, and steel, as soulless as the materials they came from, offered little intrinsically, and even less emotionally. Cheesy coronets for fingers and studded bands that clicked in lovers’ palms were reserved for marathon soaps and movies which made you cry. I wasn’t fit for such histrionics and rings would definitely not fit me. That’s it, they were objects undoubtedly and undisputedly in the end regardless of all the attachment heaped on, stuff, substance, whatever. You bought and sold and traded and collected these things. Who could ever trade feelings?
Exchange happens plentifully. The truck ends at the jewelry store and deposits its rings, handed over to potential grooms-to-be by cash and finally settling on her (or his) finger for proposal. We gift garland rings forged from weeded dandelions and flowers and tie rubber and mashed paperclips onto our knuckles. Family circles grow and shrink, bound by picky, specific rings. The most mechanistic human affection embraces in the form of a ring. Pacific volcanoes freely destroy within their Ring of Fire; we find humor when the clown spews fire under the circus ring. Clouds form rings in the sky and die into each other.
We also trade something else, too. A little bit of heart, when they can’t be with you, but annoyingly localized on your hand. Maybe that’s why my mom still painfully displays her decade-old ring when it doesn’t fit. Looking back, we gave flower rings to the people we adored, sacrificed stationary in honor of the things that bored us. As our arms envelop and protect those inside its ring, so do the families and friends and people that form it. Life is as confusing as the ring’s friendship with fire and in the end, our own lives close at the ends of these circles.
This one is stainless steel and it rotates. I don’t really mind the etched crosses. Left to me (probably relunctantly too), this ring finishes when I return it. Because that’s when we see each other again. And no longer are we bound by circles.
