How To Impress a Woman - A Reminder

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  Support her.

• Hold her.

• Surprise her. 

• Compliment her.

• Smile at her.

• Listen to her.

• Laugh with her.

• Cry with her.

• Romance her.

• Believe in her.

• Cuddle her.

• Shop with her and lavish her with beautiful diamond jewelry.

This is a reminding wake-up call gentlemen! And although I don’t expect you to follow all the above suggestions to the letter, and my compliments those of you who insist doing just so, will only make the rest of us look very bad. I will admit I did add the last verse about nice jewelry, after all I am in the jewelry business. I have been told that when I wrote the first column a few years ago one of my readers taped the verses to the refrigerator door as a daily reminder to her dearly beloved husband.

These have been some strange and weird times we have been experiencing, and like I mentioned in my last controversial column, it’s as if 50% of the population are walking around like zombies with what I call “Covid Brain”. You can call it whatever you want - I’ve noticed folks have been acting real strange lately. For one the lack of common courtesy and the basic manners our parents taught us since birth. The cause? Could be a lot of things - being cooped up, the lack of one-on-one, face-to-face physical experiences, and then all this Zooming, working, home schooling and being glued to social media platforms and just mad at the world must be taking a toll on the population.

Which brings me to another question…is romance dead? I’m no expert in the ways of love, and never professed to be, and exactly what makes a woman tick will be a mystery to me until the very end... but I do have to admit that over the decades I have and still do make a lot of women happy, even crying tears of joy! (No, not in the biblical sense! Shame on what some of you were thinking.) I’m a practicing goldsmith/ jeweler, I design creating and sell nice jewelry. The simple thoughtful gesture of presenting her or your significant other with that special piece jewelry during a nice quiet dinner at your favorite restaurant is a strategic move that can ignite the spark of romance. 

I can imagine some of you guys are squirming and feeling a bit uneasy about this subject, I don’t mean this in a bad way - and I’m not one to judge - but I can remember for some of us “Baby Boomer’s” the idea of romance was a local drive-in , a bottle of Strawberry Boone’s Farm  wine in the back seat in Dad’s Chrysler ( if you were a classy guy like yours truly it was a bottle of Mateus Rose!)

The fact you may have to shell out a few shekels to perform the nice jewelry magic can be comparable to a mouth full of castor oil and I can assure you it’ll cost more than a bottle of Boone’s. I feel your pain, believe me, I’m a fortunate one; all I do to make my soulmate happy involves a new racket, tennis shoes and a fresh case of Spalding’s.

It’s your choice - pull the trigger or not - commit and purchase that lavish piece of jewelry for her. Once you see the look of joy and happiness believe it or not you wind up feeling pretty darn good too! And thanks to many decades later we can elevate the romance to a bottle of Mumm’s and a bubbling hot tub.

Jewelry, unlike flowers or chocolates, lasts a long time and reminds the one wearing it of that special occasion where you stepped up and professed your love. I realize this love thing is a two- way street so ladies it could not hurt for you to initiate or even return the favor - most guys like jewelry too.

I, like everyone else, have personally experienced the stress and inconveniences from the year 2020, and 2021 hasn’t exactly been a picnic for a lot of us, either. It seems nothing surprises or shocks me lately, despite all that is going on, we can tend to have our feelings numbed even callused, which can cause us lose touch with one another, our closest friends, loved ones and especially family, they are the ones who mean the most to us. It’s a very bad cycle and only we and we alone can break it.

Without meaning to sound like a used car salesman, jewelry (unlike a piece-of-junk used car) is a medium that speaks volumes about how you feel about someone. It’s a physical and tangible thing you can hold in your hand, touch it, enjoy it, and even get compliments when you wear it.  Having a piece of jewelry engraved with a touching word or two makes it even that more special.

I have seen a trend in the shop these the past months when someone will purchase something special for someone special and when I ask what is the occasion? They answer, “it’s only because I love him or her and I want them to know how much they mean to me.”

I guess you can call it a random act of love and kindness, something we could all use a lot of right now in this world. 

Richard Alan is a designer/goldsmith and owner of The Harbor Goldsmith, Marco’s go-to jeweler since 1994. He welcomes your questions and comments on All That Glitters at www.harborgoldsmith.com.

The shop is closed for vacation until September 13, 2021.