  Romance/Love
This week: Edited by: Joy  
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Plato said:
“At the touch of love, everyone becomes a poet.”
This is Joy , your guest editor. 
"My heart is ever at your service."
William Shakespeare
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Welcome to the Romance/Love Newsletter
In today’s issue, we’ll take a close look at wedding bands and promissory rings and read, in the editor’s picks section, what they have inspired to a few of our writers. As you well know, the ultimate expression of love between two people is the exchange of wedding bands when their love finds its eventual course, as the famous De Beers’ slogan “A Diamond is Forever” indicates.
Since the exact dictionary definition of romance is history, saga, or story, the romance writer’s task is to take a person, assign him or her a mate, and write their saga. When you, the love/romance writer, give your characters a happy ending, you may need an ultimate expression of love between them. That expression may well be a wedding band, as its circle points to endless love.
Wedding bands have come a long way from the time of ancient Egyptians, from about 5000 years ago when the idea of the wedding ring had supernatural connotations. In Colonial times when jewelry was considered to be frivolous, couples exchanged thimbles instead, which has me puzzled as to what a man could do with a thimble.
The old Romans considered a woman already married if she accepted a ring from a man, with or without a ceremony. They believed that a vein--vena amoris--went directly to the heart from the finger.
In Medieval England, the ceremony of placing the ring on the bride’s finger became more important than the ring itself. The bridegroom slid the ring on the thumb of the bride’s left hand first, then on the next finger, and last on the third finger, saying: "In the name of the father, the son, and the holy ghost."
In most countries, the wedding ring is worn on the left hand, unlike Orthodox Christians, Eastern Europeans, Russians do. Then in Chile, Venezuela, Germany, and India, too, the ring is worn on the right hand, since most cultures and languages associate the left side with negative meanings. Jewish women once wore their rings on their index fingers since the right index finger was the one they pointed to the Torah when they were reading from it.
For many centuries, it was the woman who wore the wedding ring. Only in the twentieth century, men have begun to wear rings, also. Sometimes, people wear their wedding bands on chains from their necks, if their professions make it inconvenient to wear rings on their fingers.
Most traditional wedding bands are made up of gold, but the ring need not be of any one metal. The early Romans opted for iron since it represented strength; later on, iron was replaced with silver and gold. In some cultures that came afterwards where men also wore rings, men’s rings were of gold and women’s were of silver, pointing to the men’s superiority.
Then, Celtic style wedding bands were worn by the people of Irish and Scottish family lines. This type of band is engraved and embossed with a Celtic knot design, pointing to unity, stability, and eternity.
The expectations of most romance genre readers, too, revolve around unity, stability, eternity of love, and pleasure derived from being in love. Since wedding bands or promissory rings symbolize eternal love, those who write fantasy or historical fiction may well consider inserting wedding bands into their plots or subplots.
An early twentieth century author Alice Childress wrote a play with the title Wedding Band, depicting a tragedy involving an interracial affair. Shakespeare refers to a ring in many of his plays. One of them is in the fifth act of Merchant of Venice, where Gratiano says: About a hoop of gold, a paltry ring/ That she did give me; whose posy was/ For all the world like cutler’s poetry/Upon a knife: Love me, and Leave me not.
As writers, we use objects that are or may become symbols since they help us draw concrete images in our readers’ minds. In addition, among the reasons for writing romance are the creation of perfect romantic moments and the satisfaction of those readers who like happy endings.
Like the vein vena amoris, may all your writings reach the heart.
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“I had no idea what was up his sleeve, but I silently hoped that his magic trick would go well for him with no mistakes or embarrassments.”
“It is the feeling of being slipped, virgin and new, on her delicate finger by the shaking hands of a youth who eyes pooled with pride.”
“I was staring at the box he'd opened, but his words drew my attention away from the ring.”
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“A circle of life/ that binds us,”
“So this will be the first Valentines Day
Where there is a ring on my finger,”
“Your love for me
I wear everywhere”
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“This one can take anything and keep on shining. It is my wedding band.”
“You put on that golden wedding ring,
said you’d not trade it for anything”
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“Each twine you see upon this ring
Represents a living Being.”
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“I got my ring back the day of our anniversary.”
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“Wedding ring begins / to tighten,
blackened fingers start/ to frighten.”
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“The ring could be placed in a cave, as a "treasure" for others to find”
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This wordsearch involves love towards one another, whether friends, intimate partners
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Romance/Love: August 27, 2008 Issue [#2582]
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