Shawn Bird

On this Valentine’s Day, I’m thinking about love tokens…

I have a beautiful wedding ring, made for me by Natasha of Armeni Jewelers when they were here in the Shuswap.  It has two nicely sized diamonds, set above 22 little pavé set diamonds.  It’s about a centimetre wide.  Presently, it’s a bit too large, and so I have two small bands on either side to keep it on.  As a result, I have a solid inch of sparkle on my left hand.  Over the years, on several occasions  students have looked at my hand and gasped, “Wow!  Your husband must really love you!”

Well, of course he does.

However, the ring isn’t any demonstration of that.  Does a poor man love his wife less than a rich man?  Of course not!  When we got married, we were both in university.  We didn’t have a lot of money to spend on wedding paraphernalia.  Our entire wedding budget was $1000- for photographer, flowers, dresses, and reception!  I bought my husband’s ring with the prize money from a short story contest.  I had a nice little ring set, but I’d wanted white gold, and at the time we could only find yellow gold in the jewellery stores.  I didn’t know anything about hiring jewellery designers to custom make rings back then.  Twenty-two years later, there was a little more cash around, and so I designed a ring that is full of symbols: our initials, children and years together.  Natasha enthusiastically embraced the project, and a few weeks later, I had a gorgeous, unique ring.  Hubby had nothing to do with it!  In fact, I’d been wearing it two months before my daughter noticed it while we were sitting down at dinner one evening.  He might never have done so!  Even if he’d be inclined to re-create a ring for me, he wouldn’t know where to begin.

Love isn’t measured by the jewellery on the wife.  Love is measured by the loving heart, the calm demeanour, the comforting embrace, the secure support, and the consistency of years of togetherness.  Whether there is a fancy ring, a plain band, or nothing at all, the commitment is the important thing, renewed day by day.

Still, I don’t mind him getting the credit for the ring.  After all, he does love me a lot.

The pupil can only educate himself. Teachers are the custodians of apparatus upon which he himself must turn and twist to acquire the excellencies that distinguish the better from the poorer of God’s vessels. ~Martin H. Fischer

As we start a new semester next week, I’ve been thinking about education.  I liked this quote, because it places the onus on the student.  A teacher is indeed simply the guardian of the skills and strategies in assorted proficiencies, but it is only the student himself who can absorb, apply, consider, evaluate and in the end, learn.  A teacher can inspire.  A teacher can model life-long learning.  A teacher can value the learner and encourage confidence, but at the end of the day, the only one who can do the learning is the student.

Let’s hope we have a great second semester!