TIDBITS 08/31/03

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Tyler-Baba and the Forty Rings

The year: A time in an incredibly distant past.

A long long time ago--while Tyler-Baba's distant fifth cousin (Ali)
thrice removed through marriage to a girl of lower class to which his
parents strongly objected because of her connection to a street gang
that called itself The Forty Thieves--Tyler decided in a heady moment
of recklessness to become a jeweler. Not yet quite sure which
direction in the world of jewelry to take ... Tyler-Baba began to read
up on the subject ... and he began with rings ... and this is what he
found:

A ring, began a tome, is a circular thing and because it has no
beginning and no end it represents wholeness and eternity and
endlessness of time. This little Tidbit excited Mr. Baba's son no end
.... and so Tyler-Baba read on. The ring is a binding symbol which
protects the wearer against evil and is often worn by married couples
for its protective powers. These rings are quaintly enough called
Wedding Rings.

From continent to continent continued the tome which was obviously
written by a world traveler ... children are protected from malicious
spirits by encircling their wrists with rings of string. The author of
this piece extrapolates by conjecturing that these bits of string
around the wrist would ultimately lead some enterprising
spirit--perhaps even Mr. Baba himself--to creating rings of gold for
the wrist.

Women in labor were to never take off their wedding rings a learned
article warned ... for if they did they would run the risk of having
demons and witches and other nefarious beings gain power over them. In
certain parts of the world ... when one died ... a brass ring would be
tied to one's arm before burial in order to ensure protection against
ghosts.

I digress. Is there one amongst you who would misguidedly believe that
the purpose of wearing jewelry is solely decorative as opposed to
being totally utilitarian? Of course not. That would be daft.

Should a Chinese emperor send you a ring ... it was a summons to
court. Should the ring be broken ... you were banished from the land.
The ring ... Tyler-Baba began to realize ... truly made for a wondrous
piece of jewelry. Of course ... the question arose ... how many rings
does one need in order to ensure total protection from those of the
netherworld who would threaten one's peace and harmony. Alas ...
though Tyler-Baba did become a jeweler of some note in his
community ... he was never able to solve the answer to this perplexing
poser. This would be left to someone else.

The year: 1988. Wendy Ramshaw is inspired by a painting of Picasso's
entitled: The Dream. She makes a set of forty rings thereby answering
the question that tormented the now long deceased Tyler-Baba. These
rings are made of gold and set with garnet and sapphire and moonstone
and tourmaline and labradorite and amethyst. They are a sight to
behold for I am sure there are few of you who would thing of buying a
single set of rings constituting forty separate pieces. For those of
you whose imagination may now begin running amuck wondering how to
wear the whole set on one finger and how long does that finger have to
be ... be assured that the set may be distributed among the many
available digits one has privy to ... thereby enhancing one's prestige
in the community as well as assuring one's protection against
malevolent demons. What more can one ask for in life?

For those of you who are new to this thing called Tidbits...may I
direct you to my home page at www.tyler-adam.com where you will scroll
down the left side menu till you get to the area that says Tidbits
Graphics ... and then click on the link that says: 40 ... where you'll
see an image of a 20th century set of 40 Ring by Wendy Ramshaw.

And there ya have it.
That's it for this week folks.
Catch you all next week.
Benjamin Mark

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