The Second Ring

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Radio address for December 14, 2013. We tend to place a bit of our power into things: trees, books, jewels, bullets and hats. Lose one of these talismans, and you are put to a world of trouble to get it back again.

I never really thought I’d write about the experience of losing my wedding ring, but the time seems to have come when I can talk about it reasonably. Not long after it happened, encouraged by stories such as this one, I tried posting on some treasure hunting boards, and a couple of people said they’d look but ultimately I never heard back.

The second loss (not talked about in the audio): As mentioned at the tail end of the episode, there was another time when I actually lost my second ring too: it went missing for a few months. One day my mom shows up at my door with the ring: it had been found under their piano, looking like this:

The jeweler was able to restore it to its original condition, and in the process reduce it by a half size, making it a little less likely that I’ll ever have to live through this again.

This address’s extremely appropriate and well-placed music cues are:

• The Blue World from Lady in the Water by James Newton Howard


• Wow, from Finding Nemo, by Thomas Neumann


• Treasure, from Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy by Alberto Inglesias — “…those wanings of power, which are the inevitable result of old age…”


• …blended seamlessly into One Ring to Rule Them All, from Fellowship Of The Ring, by Howard Shore


• and ending with The Grey Havens, also by Howard Shore, from The Return of the King