30 December 2005

Five Golden Rings

Tonight is a "scratching post," meaning that I post about something that I've been itching to let out.

Wow, that was a really crappy play on words. I did, however, just make it up, so I do feel somewhat proud of it. Like a mother would feel about her ugly baby. Anyway, here goes:

What is with engagement rings?!?! Why has a tiny, but highly expensive, piece of metal and stone become the symbol of love and devotion?! It just seems so cheap and materialistic to me.

Take, for example, the following scenario: a man gets engaged, and the next day his buddies come over to his place, and sitting in his living room is this monster flat-screen, high-definition television. The guys ooh and ahh over it, telling him how beautiful it is and how pretty it looks when held up to the light. The man feels like his fiance must really love him, because she forked out the big bucks to buy him this expensive TV which, in all its plasma-screen, ambiance-lighting, TiVo'd glory, is an emblem of their love. (Sigh.) Besides, he honestly would've felt a little disappointed if it had only been a 45-incher instead of the 60-inch screen.

I realize that this is a ridiculous scenario. But it makes about as much sense to me as the emphasis placed on engagement rings. At least a TV is practical. I'm honestly not a cheapskate, and my fiance will get a freakin' huge ring if that's what is important to her. But that's what really gets me-- it's not the money in itself at all, but the idea that something so pure and immaterial is contaminated with filthy lucre (okay, so I just like that word). Why in the world would that be important to her, or anyone for that matter?!?!

I guess I've been too heavily influenced by my hippie heritage. Y'all have heard the story-- my dad, lying in the fields like hippies did, weaved my mom an engagement ring out of the tall grass. She's got a real ring now, but that wasn't what mattered.

No matter what De Beers may say, families are forever, not diamonds.

3 comments:

Ronnie said...

I don't know Russ, there'd definitely be some ooh-ing and ahh-ing if you got the big screen TV. That would be a much better engagement tradition.

Aaron said...

Whatever happened to "all you need is love"? Diamonds are only worth something because society has decided they are. I mean they don't do anything when set in a ring. People don't make sense.

Stefani said...

Maybe a guy gives his girl a diamond ring because guys like shiny things. B should understand, he's a pirate.