November 20, 2007

What would you do with your old wedding ring?

I laughed at a lot of these, but this story is my favorite: Took the rings to a jeweler, sold the gold, and had the solitaire diamond set into a pendant, which I then gave to my daughter for her 18th birthday. The note said, "Now this diamond has been given with love, twice over." She is 30 now and still wears the pendant every day. —B.

  • I don't understand just chucking it somewhere, much better to sell or pawn and have fun with the cash.
  • Gotta get me one first
  • Mine is still sitting in a jacket pocket somewhere in the wardrobe, doubtless waiting for an embarassing moment to make its reappearance. I understand the shaking-the-dust-off-your-heels impulse to crush or throw away, but I think it's better to rise above all that if you can. My first marriage represents a slice of my life, and though it necessarily ended I couldn't altogether repudiate or disown it.
  • During a 10-day solo hike in the northen Canadian wilderness, I tossed it into a small clear lake on top of a hill. Nothing to do with repudiating my first marriage, you can't undo what is done, just a personal way of moving on with my life.
  • Pfft. Love. Yeah right whatever.
  • I always wonder what's in these rings when I read the stories of people ditching them. I can understand ditching a plain band (less so with the price of gold these days) but my ring is a claddagh with a nice blue topaz, and the one from my ex had five small diamonds, two of which are now studs. I don't think about the symbolic value, either. They're just earrings.
  • When I threw that ring into the lake it felt like I tossed away a giant weight that had been dragging me down. Perhaps how people deal with these things depends on whether they are the dumper or the dumpee and why the relationship ended. At the time, I was in no mood to "have fun with the cash," and even with 10 years retrospect, nothing I could have spent the monitary value of that ring on would have been better for me than throwing it away.
  • Sell it and buy a bag of weed.
  • I'm not one to judge anyone for any choice, but would the same weight for some maybe be lifted by selling the ring and donating the money to charity? If the split was less than amicable, maybe a charity the ex wouldn't approve of?
  • I think that's what I said.
  • I considered it Money Well Spent.
  • Gotta get me one first posted by muteboy Pfft. Love. Yeah right whatever. posted by petebest I'm not sure which comment contains more pathos.
  • I liked the story from the woman who had it turned into jewelry for her daughter. The kid is probably the best thing that came out of the marriage anyway.
  • It must be that I'm lacking some passion as two sets of marital trappings hung around in a collection of old jewellery including the first gold ring ever from a boyfriend. Finally I desgned a ring modelled sorta on a silver ring Mr. dx had given me and had a new ring made from all the old gold. I did pay extra for a special firing so the metal remained pure, as in only mine. I dedicated it as my "life ring" and is the only one I wear. My daughter has instructions that it does not go with me. I don't agree with the waste and she appreciates the life that went into this ring. Good link, thanks for the giggles.
  • Lovely story, dx.
  • Thanks. I have taken the position that this is the last banding regardless of all else in life. Mr. is cool with it.