On Breaking my Arrowhead Earrings

by Jay Paul

Strange things keep happening to me, and they are not my imagination. The other day, I ordered breakfast at a diner, then stepped out for a cigarette. In the early morning darkness, I struck up a conversation with a man who happened to be standing outside the diner. He had a skateboard. After joshing me about being high on cocaine the previous night, we exchanged pleasantries about our family and work situations. At that point it got strange, but in a pleasant manner. He asked me if I were eating at the restaurant. When I answered in the positive, he said he would pay for me. He never asked my name, and I never asked his. He followed me into the restaurant. I ignored him. After I finished eating, the waitress informed me, "that guy paid for your meal."

I say this only to illustrate that my life is often odd, filled with off-the-wall occurrences and coincidences.

Perhaps what happened to my earrings was not a coincidence. Perhaps there was a message hidden in both half of a pair getting broken in the same manner.

After purchasing a nonelectric manual typewriter, a thrift store across the street beckoned me. I had yet to pierce my ears again, but knew I had to buy earrings to prepare for a piercing in the next day or two. A clerk directed me to the jewelry case, and I immediately saw my goal: black arrowhead earrings with a small pearl ball above the arrowhead and a small ball, of another type, at the bottom. I quickly bought them. 

About a week later, I dropped one on the tile of my bathroom floor. One wing of the arrowhead broke off cleanly. Now, it could no longer be mistaken for a black "V"; it was, instead, an asymmetrical, non vertical black and grey line. I liked the new look, and continued wearing the earring.

After buying a hanging bumblebee earring, I wore the still unbroken arrowhead, which also dangled, in the right ear. About a week later, after thinking I lost it and then finding it in a pocket, it broke in my bathroom sink when it dropped as I tried to insert it. The break was exactly the same as the first. I also liked this break.

Obviously, both earrings had a weak spot in the same place. Perhaps something in the construction of each just happened to make that spot weak. Another possibility is that the jewelry maker intentionally created weak spots right there so that when I inevitably dropped the earrings they would break right where they did. Of course, this is only speculation, but given a life where strange men who don't even introduce themselves to me pay for my meals, a lot is possible. Was the breaking of the earrings mere coincidence or  was it intentional? Was I to break them as a message?

Dunno.

But I do know what the message is, if there is one: broken arrowhead means an end to war and the end to killing domesticated animals for food. I speculate that domesticated animals raised for meat may be turning toxic soon. They take antibiotics. They eat a bizarre genetically modified diet. Could this be the message? Possibly. I don't know for sure.

Let me be clear: I occasionally eat meat, maybe once or twice a week. There is nothing wrong with eating meat in the absolute. However, I am personally very concerned about the way human beings kill wild animals for food. I don't know the solution. All I know is I care, and I feel worried about this.

And it could all be coincidence.

"Call me schizophrenic." Hackneyed Melville.