Our Three Rings of Marriage. 102
My wife and I of 40 years do not wear wedding rings. People notice this now and then and the comments range from -
“Are you two having a hard time?”
“Are you in an open relationship?” This is asked with incredulity.
“Did you forget them today?”
“What’s the story if I may ask?”
The story is quite simple and we actually enjoy telling the why. We have had three sets of wedding rings. We married in Korea and bought very nice gold rings which had jade bands which circumferenced the ring. For whatever reason the jade on my wife’s ring broke. All the jade came out. We thought the ring didn’t look so nice any more nor did it match mine.
Soooo, we bought new matching rings. These rings were solid gold rings. We had learned our lesson no mixed materials to be tormented and decomposed by the heat cold or other elements. Those wedding rings accompanied us to American Samoa where we taught. They lasted awhile until they disappeared one night. We’d taken them off and left them on a table with my wallet like we did every night. However, someone became more attached to them and the money in my wallet. Translation - we were burgled while we slept. Pretty scary actually.
The third set of our wedding rings were made of heavy duty silver with little gem stones imbedded in them. These we bought in USA and wore them while we taught in California.
However, one day my wife complained, “ I don’t know how or where. But I lost my ring. I have no clue where it is.”
And I thought, “Ya know, this wedding ring thing just seems not to be working for us.” Plus, a few weeks before I had hooked my ring and attached finger on a railing and it nearly pulled my finger off as I had run down some steps.
Not entirely safe, working with machinery either, I thought. Therefore we gave up. We do not wear wedding rings. We comfort ourselves with a joke about the three rings of marriage which we found both amusing and appropriate. Two people are engaged in this.
Person 1 - “Do you know what the three rings of marriage are?”
Person 2 - “No. What?”
Person 1 - “The first ring of marriage is an engagement ring.”
Person 2 - “And what is the second ring?”
Person 1 - “A wedding ring.”
Person 2 - “So what’s the third ring?”
Person 1 - “Suuuuffer-ING.”
I’d like to say my wife isn’t getting a fourth ring. But that would be a lie. I did buy her a super nice ring. White gold, small emeralds, small rubies. However, as for me no more rings.
BTW - My wife loves that three ring joke a lot.