Diamond ring

Son,

In a shallow meditation I had yesterday morning, a topic I like to discuss with you emerged and my concentration was ruined so I set my thought free to roam all over this one, Diamond Ring.

I remember that you recently told mom after you finished dinner and was leaving for your room to practice your guitar, that you probably will propose to your girlfriend during the upcoming school holiday trip to Melbourne. But you had not got the diamond ring ready yet for the proposal.

I did not know that diamond ring is a must-have when a pair of boyfriend and girlfriend in relationship has come to the stage of planning a wedding, then, the first thing the boy has to buy is a diamond ring. As if among the many stages of the young people’s journey toward marriage nowadays, there is one stage that can be referred to as “diamond ring stage”.

Diamond is known as being unbeatable, undestroyable, most bright, most sparkling and etc, all in all, it symbolizes every positiveness of one's marriage. Everyone is longing for a harmonious relationship, an eternal loyalty, and may be out of their subconsciousness, they think their marriage can be assured to achieve all of these quality a diamond ring has.

However, that is just a symbol, just a stage where young people of your generation all believe it can bring happiness and harmony to them throughout their marriage life, or it is simply a fashion to them and everyone simply doesn’t want to be left out. Less people are calm enough to realize that all that is indeed a blessing or a guarantee to retaining their affectionate marriage life is not from the external diamond ring but the internal virtues both of them cultivate and observe constantly.

From the movies depicting the marriage life of a couple, usually see their very affectionate wedding photo magnificently framed and hung over the most outstanding position of the living room. And one day, they begin to fight on trivial problems, and it goes on and on, often and more often, and then finally one of them erupts anger and throw the glass of wine they are holding in hand onto the photo, drag it down from the wall, and shatter it. Interestingly, this kind of scenarios are seen in the movies or TV dramas a lot, and I believe there must be a lot happening in real life. It reflects a fact, the external decorative jewelry or magnificent wedding photos are not reliable, are not the guarantee of a happy long lasting marriage. They are just items wasted; items to make the expectation seem to be very absurd.

Of course, there are examples that they follow all of these fashions of large framed wedding photo, expensive diamond ring, and are in a profound marriage throughout their lives. But those items are not necessarily to have to be pursued, are they?

Suppose you treasure my opinions about your plan of buying a diamond ring for your beloved, the following is my idea that I take it as being significant, sacred and meaningful:

• Donate the money you originally planned to spend on diamond or huge framed wedding photo to a charity such as World Vision or Red Cross. They know how to help the people in need on behalf of you.
• Follow the most basic etiquette of engagement customs only. A no frill gold ring, an outdoor ceremony party with tea, lots of photos out of your iPhone camera.
• Observe constantly and consistently the virtues you have been taught.

Forget the diamond ring. Be liberated from ironic belief.