Opus 2023-308: Rings of Submission

Last week we went exploring new restaurants.  The young woman assigned to wait on us was exploring new careers.  She was a trainee.  We may not have been her first table but we were close.  She had a mentor helping her work through things.  Mistakes were made but it all worked out as she was pleasant and we were pleasant right back.

When I first lifted my eyes to look at her I stopped at the ring in her nose.  Later I realized she had nice features and would possibly grow into a beautiful woman but my eyes were startled by the ornament.  When I see this kind of thing I usually wonder how they blow their nose or some such nonsense.  I think she had other piercings but I was stopped by her perforated nostrils.

She did a good job and we enjoyed the meal.  The nose ring was really not an issue to get concerned about.  We see them more and more as the days go by.  I wonder if these young ladies realize what the nose ring says.  This stuck in my mind becaus this morning I read,

(Gen 35:4 KJV)  And they gave unto Jacob all the strange gods which were in their hand, and all their earrings which were in their ears; and Jacob hid them under the oak which was by Shechem.

In the ancient Middle East nose and ear rings often carried a message.  The fact that Jacob demanded them along with their personal household gods is a clue.  Often these earrings were decorated in such a way as to declare your allegiance, or submission to a certain deity.  They spoke of submission.

Another place that reflects this is ,

(Gen 24:22 KJV)  And it came to pass, as the camels had done drinking, that the man took a golden earring of half a shekel weight, and two bracelets for her hands of ten shekels weight of gold;

The context has the servant of Abraham being sent to find a wife for his son.  Rebekah seems to be the choice.  These gifts were a step in getting her to agree to be a wife for Isaac.  You don’t give a young girl gifts like this simply for watering your camels.

Another illustration we might use is the cartoon about Ferdinand the Bull.  Notice he had a nose ring.  So did pigs.  The reason was that when you hooked a chain to their nose ring they became very agreeable.  

So go with the fashion.  Like the Christmas tree originally being a pagan fertility symbol, the common cultural item does not mean you agree with the background, but if I were a young girl I am not sure I would want a symbol of slavery hanging from my nose.

homo unius libri