December 3 question – As a writer, what was one of the coolest/best gifts you ever received?
Ummm….from someone else? Space pens. They’re awesome. They’re just awesome. Now you can get different color inks, too.
But my favoritist gifty was one I bought for myself when I was 14. It’s a storyteller ring with this pattern:
At the time when I bought it from the Wireless Catalog in 1990, it was described as documenting the journey of the Hopi Storyteller; from sunrise to sunset, over mountains and plateaus, in all sorts of weather, to bring the stories to the next village.
A silversmith on Etsy is making them now, with rock chip inlay in all kinds of colors, but not obsidian, like my ring. And the story they say is attached to the symbols is about the seasons and crops.
To be fair, I am not Hopi, so I have no idea what the true interpretation is, or if it was just designed to make ignorant white people think “ooooo! I want it!”
I’ve held on to the first meaning I encountered for it, because I’m biased.
I still have that ring, but I’m chub-chub now, so I can’t even get it on my pinky, but I do have it attached to a bracelet I frequently wear, now.
Anytime I thought I’d lost it over the last 35 years, I had a panic attack, every time. The last time I thought I’d lost it, I drew the pattern from memory and went to a tattoo shop to get it on my arm.
I found the ring the next day. Just like Frodo, the damned thing won’t stay on a necklace, no matter how I attach it.
It hasn’t escaped from the bracelet yet, but it’s only been a few years, so I guess it still has time for another escape attempt.
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