Golden Ring

by Aaron Moseley
(New York)

My grandmother owned a golden ring; the round spirals form a floral design. My grandmother loved me more than some of her other grandchildren and as much as the rest. A few of them treated her with contempt, but I admired her humor and her compassion for me. I still love her humor.

After she died, the ring was one of the few things of hers I "inherited;" she gave it to me in 2002 or 2003. The last place she lived was in Northampton Massachusetts.

The ring haunts me when I think about what I have not become; it causes happiness when I see what I have become.

My hope is that my grandmother does not see the worst things about me. Ultimately, the ring reminds me to live with an uncertain amount of compassion -- the same way that she showed compassion for me.