One who cannot cast away a treasure at need is in fetters.
J.R.R. Tolkien
The Lord of the Rings
One thing about doing a column like this is you must have some practical experience about what you are writing about. You must write with conviction and the best way to do that is to have firsthand experience in what you are writing about.
And we do. When we talk about following our hearts and trusting our instincts or making your time serve you it is because we have significant experience doing that. It’s the first rule of writing, really: write what you know and is why we don’t write about yoga or auto repair.
This is why today’s Thought was selected for today’s column: today we are able to say today’s Thought completely and utterly resonates with us because Sunday a bracelet we’ve had for going on 30 years fell off our wrist and we have some zero clue where it went. We have a suspicion and if that’s what happened it is gone forever. I was pretty down at first but more at the loss of a 30-year companion than a hunk of jewelry, but then I remembered today’s Thought.
You can’t let external things define you. Yes, it was a gift from our mother and was pretty classy, well at home at the 5-star restaurants it had attended. But I should have taken better care of it because the clasp had started coming loose, though it had done that before and never fallen off. Had I done so, another quote would have been our Thought for the Day.
I’ll be honest, I would have preferred not to have had the opportunity to provide this shining example of Philosophy In Action, but I did and I am taking this well. Hardly an attitude of good riddance, but you shrug and realize it doesn’t really affect anything deep inside you. It was a nice material possession and that is all.
Helpful is the fact I have another bracelet to wear anyway. Mom evidently liked bracelets on her men because she bought my dad a silver bracelet with his name – also Gaylon – on it. However, they sort of got married in a hurry and Mom did not know Dad did not wear jewelry, save for a watch. So Dad never wore it and, in fact, I never even knew it existed until Mom gave it to me after Dad’s funeral.
So that will be getting more use. After it is checked by a jeweler, of course.
Quotes are from Gaylon’s personal quote book, begun in 1988 in a hotel room in Berkeley, California.
