Committed

 One of the reasons Tom and I went to Cleveland - besides the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame - was to celebrate our anniversary. We had been together four years on May 15. Initially I thought we'd return to the Cracker Barrel in Middletown where we first met and celebrate another anniversary there.

 But we've both been thinking it was about time for a vacation and the RR Hall of Fame kept calling our name. Tom has been there many times and want to show it to me. It was also a choice that was relatively close and would mean he'd have to take only two days of vacation time.

 The idea of rings came up before. But what to call them? We settled on "Commitment Rings" because that was what we wanted to celebrate, our dedication to one another.

 Tom picked the perfect spot to open the black box and hand me one of the rings: beside the piano that was in the basement music room of the Asher house in London. Paul McCartney moved in with Jane Asher in 1963, just as Beatlemania was taking off. This piano saw the composition of many early Beatles hits.

 "John Lennon and myself would often be found thumping about on it," McCartney once said.

 Eleanor Rigby, for instance, came to life on this piano. Since McCartney woke from a dream at the Asher house and had a nascent Yesterday in mind, I wonder if that classic, too, wasn't first heard on this piano. Wikipedia says "Upon waking, he hurried to a piano and played the tune to avoid forgetting it." [reference]

Safe to say, this piano holds a special place in Beatles lore. Now it holds a special place in mine.

Paul at the piano  in the Asher home in 1966

 I asked Tom how he could have possibly known my ring size. He reminded me of a day in Cincinnati when he innocently had me try on a ring in his car. I hadn't thought anything about it, simply slipped the ring on and told him that it fit me.

 After slipping the commitment ring on my finger, I snapped this picture beside the Asher piano ...

 The ring, by the way, is a Stauer "Meteorite in Tungsten" ring. The meteorite (Muonionalusta) fell millennia ago in Scandinavia. The unique crisscross pattern (center of the band) is unique to this meteorite. Tom, of course, knows I love cosmology. He couldn't have chosen a better ring.

 And to present it to me beside the Asher piano made it all the more special.

 Later I took a picture of both of us wearing matching rings ...

 Yes, Tom thought enough to buy himself one, too. I paid for his.

 I love having an external proof of our commitment to one another. It is late in life for both of us to find the loves of our lives, but it is far better now than never at all. These bands will bind.