Treasure Hunt

I love auction sales and I have been partaking for my entire life in the thrill of the competition, the hunt for treasures and the banter of the crowd and auctioneer. A few years ago, I bought a wonderful pair of earrings for $45. They are so pretty, they drop down and have garnet-coloured stones and I have worn them a hundred times.

Recently one of the lever-back bits broke. So, I took the earring to the repair shop, and I was surprised when they said they would call with a quote before fixing the issue. A few days later the shop called and said that the charge for fixing my earring would be $134. Intuitively picking up on my complete shock at the cost, the repair person explained that what I had dropped off was an earring that was 18 carats rose gold; I explained that I really had no idea of that fact. The person went on to say that the set of earrings should be insured for $800. I needed a minute and said I would call back.

Quick conference with my husband and he urged me that if I truly loved the earrings, I should pay the amount to fix them. So, my favourite earrings are fixed. But now I know what they are worth, and I have not had the courage to wear them for fear of losing one. I have worn them all over the place, without a care, loving them as a $45 treat from a fun auction and nothing has actually changed about the earrings themselves except my opinion and knowledge.

I think its like that with a lot of things, we can go along with one idea of something or someone’s gifts and then we learn something that changes our view. And in fact, maybe we should challenge ourselves to learn something new about people all the time. I can say for certain, there are treasures all around us – first disguised as earrings that I am not sure I even took off before to go in the pool, that now I have trouble even contemplating wearing.

The jeweller wears the funkiest little magnifying glass on their glasses so they can see the fine details of the quality of gold. I think we should try the same in our everyday interactions, a little second look at the maker’s mark whenever possible.

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