Thursday, December 20, 2018

The Bracelet and Yemeni safest place for Jewelery




I've got an old , simple bracelet. It's not gold, but I like it. In fact I like it so much that I've recently decided not to wear it any longer for fear of losing it (It disappeared a while ago, and it reappeared miracoulously  just when I lost all hope of finding it again).

The bracelet was bought many years ago in a little shop , on the edge of the city market. The shop owners, father and son, dealt mainly with jewelery bought from immigrants and inheritance.  It was a popular shop, for one could buy there a real bargain and even get a blessing, style "you should never have to resell it".
The shop no longer exists. 

There's only one more shop of that kind known to me; it's bigger, more expensive, and located in the heart of the city. The owners, two twin brothers, are skillful jewelery makers and... rather shrewd merchants. Part of the items acquired by them are not sold in their original form but undergo some slight transformation that enables the two brothers to demand a higher price.

Anyway, my bracelet,  safely kept now,  has some strange sort of fascination upon me. Hard to explain . There's something about it, something indefinable that appeals to me.Perhaps its simplicity of design, its light weight , its minimal chic as a fashion accessory or all these things together.

Speaking of safety, it's not unusual to see elderly women, especially of yemeni descent, wearing their jewelery (rings, bracelets, earrings, necklaces - mostly silver made) on their body, almost all the time. They'll tell you and even argue with you that your body is... the safest place for it, not the hidden safe on the wall.





Wednesday, December 12, 2018

Buy, Keep, Give away...





People buy things all the time, but before holidays, it becomes madness.  The good news is that the urge to buy  can be controlled just like the urge to overeat.  People, however, seem more interested in controlling things they cannot control, like the weather, for instance.

Those who do not participate in the shopping race will say, 'Hey! what do you need all this stuff for; remember, you'll take nothing with you when you leave this world'. True, though it wasn't entirely so in antiquity, and that reminds me of the archeological museum in Heraklion (Crete greek island).



entrance to the Archeological Museum in Heraklion (2016)

Heraklion has one of the finest archeological museums in Europe (it's a Must when visiting the island). At the museum, my attention was caught by the display of a great variety of personal belongings and tools found in people's graves. Also decorations and worship figurines. The ancient Cretans actually believed they'll need all this stuff in afterlife, and demanded to be burried with them.

miniature works of ivory, gold, semiprecious stones

figurines

daggers

jewelery

Back to our modern times .
Over the years, following decluttering, many accumulated items will be discarded, donated, sold   by the owners or their heirs ( the latter will usually concentrate first on what can be turned into some profit: house, art, jewelery).

Apropo heirs - Inheritance might cause them a lot of 'headache' about what to keep and what to give away or sell . Some inherit "overloaded" houses, others, houses with few possessions. In both cases they have doubts as to what to keep and what to dispose of.
I think perhaps parents can make it easy for them by leaving clear instructions or...clear houses.

A friend of mine  whom I've always known as a dedicated daughter, discarded or sold after her mother's passing, even items that had sentimental value.
That was not like her at all and, I was rather surprised (she had also offered me some items).  When I asked her why, she blamed it on pressure from what she called ,'her insensitive husband', who favored only space and money.  I believed her, and yet, I was disappointed in her. 

I thought it was not fair to the memory of her Mom (single mother, divorced after only five years of marriage) who worked  hard  to achieve all those things left behind .