Got Gold?

     Gold.

      Years before I met my wife, I lived in a boarding house filled with creeps, junkies, whores and rats.  I brushed my teeth with detergent and ate whatever I could boil:   Spaghetti, grits, oatmeal, rice, beans, corn meal, weevils, etc.  To survive,  I pawned my TV in a squalid shop with bulletproof display cases that were filled with broken dreams and thick necklaces of braided gold.

     I know a man who is a technological genius.  In his yard and inside his house (stacked to the ceiling) are crates of broken computers and parts.  He doesn't even have a bed; apparently he sleeps in a large office chair, surrounded by dual 30 inch monitors.  Every time I see him, he is watching some movie in current release on one screen, while programming on the other.

     Periodically, the junk disappears.   Then over the course of a month or two it builds up, only to disappear again.   I learned that he sells to a salvage company, which separates and grinds up the parts, then either cooks or melts them in separate vats.  By doing this, the recycler is able to leech out and save all of the useful minerals and metals, especially the gold.

     For some, gold is the basis of commerce.  Without the "L", gold is Deity.  In an economy that has long since abandoned the Gold Standard - gold is still the goal.

     My wife still has her original gold wedding ring, but she doesn't wear it.   I have had two gold bands, and both times I had to cut them off when I got fat and my finger turned purple.  Currently I wear a $39 Titanium cheapy from Walmart.  Years ago I wanted to buy my wife some jewelry.  But instead, she asked for a freezer.

     Tomorrow I will rejoin the rat race via my cubicle, then later I will finish yet another manuscript which I will (hopefully) sell.  Weekends and evenings I work my side gigs.  Sometimes I wonder if the quest for the Golden Fleece - or any one of its modern day surrogates - is worth it.

     Ten years later, the deep freeze stills works and sits in the corner of the garage.  Each night I go home and my wife tells me about her day, usually while she cooks something criminally healthy.  I suppose some things are worth more than the "element Au"...even if they are best represented by the security of a cheap metal ring, aging appliances and a plate of tofu, garnished with love...