Yesterday was my twentieth anniversary and not for nothing but I 'm crazy about my husband. This kind of talk might make you want, at the very least, to pinch me maliciously or cyberpuke all over my facebook status like this: :O~~~~. I'm okay with that. Sometimes a girl has to stand at the top of the highest peak and declare her love and good fortune, in fact it would be downright rude and ungrateful not to.
Anyhoo, what brought me to the blogosphere today was a kismet encounter with an artist's work on the day of my anniversary and I wanted to share her with you.
First, there's a little backstory that I need to lay down. A long time ago, over twenty years to be precise, in a faraway land, Perù to be exact, my fiancé returned to his home country to tell his parents that he was getting married to a girl they had never laid eyes on. Upon his return, he surprised me with a beautiful engagement ring. When he handed me the delicately handcrafted piece, I was shocked. I knew we hadn't any money between us, he just coming out of college and I not even close to being finished. He explained that his grandmother had donated the beautifully burnished 18K Peruvian gold and his mother a baguette from her own engagement ring. I had never heard of recycling gold or imagined a woman I had never even met would give up one of her own engagement stones for me. What was interesting about the ring is that it was so unexpected. Not only because I didn't know he was bringing it but because the style of it was so different than anything I had ever imagined for myself. My mom had a big emerald cut flawless diamond set in platinum from Tiffany's. That was my idea of an engagement ring. This tiny little work of love and art was so different and yet, exactly what I never knew I always wanted. In this, it reminded me of my husband.
Fast forward twenty years, I and my long since lawfully wedded husband are waiting to have a delicious anniversary lunch at Bette's Oceanview Diner as seen on Diner's Drive-ins and Dive's
on Fourth St. in Berkeley when I spot a sidewalk sign advertising gorgeous rings. The sign sends us over to Fifth St to visit the storefront of the artist selling these wares: Melissa Joy Manning.
My words cannot accurately capture the mood of this store and alas, I didn't take any pictures. I was so enthralled by the jewelry and the artistry of the displays that I didn't even think of taking pictures or blogging or anything. Each display case was intricately simple in its appointment: juxtaposing sometimes a ring with the husk of a locust or an organically crafted pair of earrings with the skeleton of a bat. I kid you not. It sounds so odd in print but in situ, the effect was perfectly charming. Immediately my eye fell on a raw diamond ring, the diamond the color of gray sea salt. The extremely solicitous shop assistant let me try it on. We arranged and rearranged the ring to see if it would fit with my engagement ring and matching wedding band. Before I knew it, my husband was purchasing a twentieth year anniversary ring and the new ring fit right in like it had always been intended to join the group, it just needed those twenty years to find its way home.
I am not a woman who needs objects and material goods for gratification. I never even thought I would get an engagement ring much less a twentieth anniversary ring. Still, I do love what it represents: this lovely work of art is a constant little reminder that I have been loved so well and so long by a good man. That is something worth remembering. Thanks to Melissa Joy Manning for helping me remember in such a delightful way.
