I had to let go of the ring. The ring was gone. The ring came off when I removed my work gloves, fell to the ground, a garden bed. The ring lay unnoticed for a time on its side. The ring took on some liberated, new aura. Etched in its golden face, a tattoo it never chose, two symbols flanked either side: two sea serpents on a coronet beside a wyvern. The quiet, seeming royalty of the ring unseated on the ground.
The ring then yanked by its scalp through the blades of a lawn tractor, whirled through the housing, spat in a garden bag, dumped in a bin, wheeled across a gravel road, left in the dark against a curb. Then lifted by a machine into a truck, carried to a transfer station and dumped again. Buried amid a rush of debris, all sound tamped out.
The ring was gone, I had to accept that. Who gave it to me now severed too. You could never get it back. And I felt the soft surface of the finger where the ring once sat, the grooves in my skin now removed and worn down too, as the soft edges of its golden grooved face buried beneath the ground.
My hand would never be the same. I would never know where to look for it but back.
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Categories: writing
Bill Pearse 
Sort of akin to phantom limb syndrome, maybe you’ll have the sensation it’s still there. I like “golden grooved face buried beneath the ground,” nice sound to it, like a passage from when they found King Tut’s tomb.
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Yes exactly on the phantom limb Robert! Spot on. Thanks for reading and like the King Tut ref.
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Dandenong council (my employer) recently unloaded a full rubbish truck so a resident could search for an heirloom necklace. He found it.
But his was accidentally thrown out in a freezer bag, not chopped through a mower.
Ah well.
cheers
DD
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Oh lovely day to find the reclaimed heirloom! A happy ending, that’s great David.
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“I would never know where to look for it but back.” Yes! Way to drop the mic at that line. : )
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Ha ha thanks Stacey! You sure have that short form arc worked out well yourself, glad you liked this and the last line. Things sometimes happily emerge for us like that right? Be well. Thanks for reading!
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Bill, Thank YOU. For doing what you do. Keep on!
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Thanks for that Stacey, really kind! Tbh I’ve been spending more time reading and writing more essay-like stuff related to AI, and teasing related thoughts on LinkedIn. I’ll admit it’s kind of-I don’t know-discouraging maybe how much reach I can get here vs there, with like 1K views in a couple days over there. So more reach for ideas, just a much different vibe obviously. If you have any interest in chatting about human-centered AI send me a note or let’s hook up on LinkedIn. Not sure that’s exactly your vibe though, ha ha…be well and thanks for this. I’ve been kicking the can around here for 14 years now and think it’s time for a change!
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Cheering enthusiastically. I teach HS English, so this issue obviously has some traction in my mind. I have to think about LinkedIn. You know, I thought I had my own profile (however neglected, for about a decade) and then last year I learned that the district had created profiles for each of us, and now I am a little creeped out. So have avoided the site entirely, which about matches what I was doing beforehand : ). That said, I am heartily onboard with the idea that this is fertile territory for interesting conversation!
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Well how cool is that! I’ve been dabbling in the idea of “AI literacy” as a possible entry point for my modest grass roots efforts of trying to figure out some positive way to contribute to the field. So maybe we could riff on that at some point. And I would be creeped out too bTW. Thanks for the enthusiastic cheers and I genuflect to your HS Englishness. I’ll be in touch more on that.
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: )
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You wouldn’t think a eulogy for a signet ring would be all that interesting – but it was. Strong finish.
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Cool, thanks Dave! I got that book The Marching Morons by the way. The writer seems like he was an interesting cat, huh?
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In truth, it’s been many years since I read it – it’s just the concept that stuck with me. I don’t remember much of the author, apart from him being active many moon ago.
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Cool that the concept would persist! That’s a good concept!
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Realized I’d lost my wedding ring after trimming all the hedges and bagging the debris. Combed the flower beds and didn’t find it, started going through all the lawn bags leaf by leaf. Surprised and releived when I actually found it. Wasn’t looking forward to being slaughtered by the wife.
Did some poking around in ChatGPT thanks in part to your post. I’m rather unsettled by it. Don’t like how it’s going to change the way students write essays one bit. It’s responses to most of my requests for more detail on the Gottman method was good, but when I asked for references in APA 7 format, it nailed the format but whiffed on the references. I wasn’t able to track them down in the library by title, author, or publication. That’s probably a pretty easy fix, but I’m glad to know it’s flawed, at least for now.
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I had similar issues with references too! Whiffed is the best way to sum it up. It provided what appeared to be legit sourced but then totally did not exist. That’s my test of one however, but not a good indicator. Glad you found your ring 🤪
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Funny how in a sense we feel bad for the object, as if it had feelings. I think that’s part of the feeling of loss, as if the object is sensing it too. A sort of guilt for the thing. I have six glasses in my cupboard and I feel I must use them in a regular rotation or one of them might feel bad. Then again, I might just be losing my mind. Don’t get me started on the knives…
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Ah feeling sorry for the unused glasses. Now there’s some projection in that isn’t there? The loss is anywhere you choose to see it and many places you’d rather not (choose to see it).
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