Lost Wedding Ring

¶ … rings appear to be the same, at least to the viewer's casual eye. There the rings lie, side by side. Two simple gold bands, each embedded with five diamonds. The two rings are exactly the same in appearance, yet so different in their meaning to the wearer. One ring is a ring that is now lost to the wearer, the other is the ring's replacement. But although the rings look the same, the symbolism of the gold and five diamonds has changed and shifted.

The first ring, the lost ring, is my ring. I can never wear it again, although it should have been mine forever. It is -- it was, my wedding ring. Three years ago, I my wife put it on my finger when I married her. The two of us chose the style of our wedding rings together.

I loved her, but at the time the selection of the ring, like so many of the details of the wedding, did not seem as important as the greater details of the life we were about to embark upon together. I would have been just as happy to marry her with another kind of ring, any ring she chose.

To me, the importance of the style of the ring was about as important as the color of the icing of the flowers on the wedding cake -- one of those feminine details that were important to me only so much as they were important to my wife. But after a marriage, everything changes. You live together as man and wife. People treat you differently. And I began to regard the ring differently as well. Its symbolism was now important.

Its style was unique to 'us' as a couple, not simply a detail like a veil or a dress. And, then, one day, my wedding ring was gone. I do not know where I lost it. I only know that it is lost. If I knew where I lost it, I could look for it. But I.