The Earring Chronicles

Well, first I have to show you this:

My earring collection.  One of the first things I'd grab if our apartment caught fire, after Kate and my scriptures, that is.  What can I say?  I love them.  I'm exactly what the scriptures are talking about in Isaiah 3:

18 In that day the Lord will take away the bravery of their tinkling ornaments about their feet, and their cauls, and their round tires like the moon,

  19 The chains, and the bracelets, and the mufflers,

  20 The bonnets, and the ornaments of the legs, and the headbands, and the tablets, and the earrings,

  21 The rings, and nose jewels,

  22 The changeable suits of apparel, and the mantles, and the wimples, and the crisping pins,

  23 The glasses, and the fine linen, and the hoods, and the vails.

Of course I like ornaments of the legs, the wimples, and let's not forget the crisping pins, but mostly the earrings.  I collect them wherever I go.  I have some from Italy, Mexico, Peru, and many places in the United States.  I'm not sure how many pairs I own, but I definitely have to go through them from time to time, to make sure they'll all fit in my jewelry box (a very painful process - I'd compare it to having to get rid of a child).  If you look closely at the picture, you'll notice most the slots have two pairs.  It's like a crowded prison in there.

If I were lying down on a sofa and you were my shrink, you might ask me where my love of earring comes from.  I can answer in one word: deprivation. Yep.  That's how deprived I was growing up.  If you want to read about parents who deny their kids food and water, education, a social life, or cable, you're reading on the wrong blog.  My parents deprived me of earrings.  Namely, pierced earrings. 

I'm sure my parents had their reasons, but the rule in our house was that you couldn't get your ears pierced until you turned 18.  What did this do to my desire for earrings?  Made me want them much more, naturally.  And not just simple studs, I wanted the dangly kind, as my mom called them.  Now don't get me wrong, as long as I didn't get my ears pierced, they didn't really care.  I wore the clip-on kind to dances sometimes, but ouch - the pain they inflicted will not be forgotten anytime soon. 

After many years of pleading and begging (my parents unwavering firmness on the matter was NOT due to my lack of trying), I finally resigned myself to an earringless adolescence.  Fast forward to right after my freshman year of college.  I had just turned 19.  All of the sudden a light went on.  I had missed my big moment!  I had turned 18 (and now 19) and hadn't immediately gotten my ears pierced.  It was almost as bad as if I had turned 17 and forgotten to get my drivers license.  I got my ears pierced the next day.

As my college roommates can testify, I loved my earrings.  They were carefully and lovingly left all around the apartment, in all sorts of random spots.  I have a fond memory of a night before the cleaning check where one roommate tactfully suggested we go on an "earring treasure hunt."  I believe the number we found was in the double digits. 

Fast forward now to present day.  I still love earrings.  I also love not having my earlobe ripped apart.  That's right, I'm a mom now.  And I can only guess that Kate has inherited an equal if not greater love for earrings than I possess, if her frequent desire to rip off my earrings are an accurate indicator (the one difference being that she likes to eat them and I like to wear them).  And here lies the dilemma: do I stop wearing earrings?  My one great love (besides Dave and Kate, of course)!?  This seems unbearable.  For heaven's sake, I mean, I buy my outfits around my earrings!  I'm not ready to let them collect dust bunnies in an old jewelry box!  They need love, they need attention, and they need to be worn. So?  Any ideas?  What's an earring-loving mother to do?

Here are a few close-up pictures of my earring collection:

 Considering my quote of the day, this post seems quite ironic.