When you read the papers or listen to the news in its many incarnations, the gods of doom are omnipresent. The world’s economy is still very shaky, entire countries are teetering on the brink of financial collapse, and it’s easier and less scary to just stick your head in the sand and pretend it isn’t happening. It certainly doesn’t seem like the time to be spending money on what is arguably a frivolity.

But … is it?

Aside from the indisputable necessities – shelter, clothing, food, medical care, transportation – you could make the argument that it really isn’t necessary to spend money on anything extraneous right now. And certainly not something like adornment. And yet, jewellery retains its ability to mark days and occasions.  The ring given as a token of love and commitment. The charm that marks a birth. The ID bracelet that joyfully showed, “I’m yours.” Or maybe, “This is me, tough yet tender.” The curl of hair under glass in an antique locket, the recipient and donor long gone but the sweetness and possible sorrow of the gesture living on. The pearls that are proper, and the ones that aren’t. The old-fashioned brooch that makes you think of someone special. The inexpensive trinket that calls up a day, a moment, that makes you smile every time you see it.

Jewellery connects us to ourselves and to others. It is part of what is left long after we are gone. It is part of who I am, how I present myself to the world, high art and low, disposable and precious, tender and puzzling. I would not want to go without food or shelter or the necessities. But it would be a sad day when I would not also want to have jewellery as part of my life.