on bling.

At the corner of 52 and 5th,
Boy: What’s Cartier?
His mother: (pauses, exhales) Serious jewelry.
Boy: Serious?
His mother: Yes.

And Cartier is serious. So is Bulgari, and Tiffany and Mikimoto. Serious jewelry for frivolous people. I don’t own much serious jewelry. A necklace as a high school graduation gift, and a ‘J’ in white gold and diamonds purchased when I was little. I used to want to wear it all the time. I would hold it tenderly and plead with my mom to let me wear it everyday. But I was never allowed. “It’s special,” she said. I knew when I was allowed to wear it that it was a special day, a special occasion.

I don’t understand people who wear serious jewelry on a regular basis. When I wear a diamond ring, I want it to be because I’m about to walk down the isle, not as an accessory on my right hand. Diamond rings are strictly left hand jewelry. If you wore pearls every day, the special days wouldn’t stand out in your mind. They would blend together with the Tuesdays and Wednesdays of life. When everything is extraordinary, everything is mediocre.