I was very upset when I lost my own wedding band. I knew where it had fallen – I heard it “ping” on the kitchen floor – but I couldn’t find it. I wouldn’t vacuum nearby for a while, because I feared that the machine would grab and devour my ring. After a while, I accepted the reality: a ring is just something symbolic, and its loss doesn’t change any of the underlying meaning. I bought a replacement. This new one actually looks nicer and fits more comfortably. (Yes, the ring eventually turned up. It had bounced into the mechanism beneath my refrigerator and been caught deeply in the coils, cables, or whatever’s there. After the fire, we had to move the refrigerator to another room, to gut and replace the kitchen. All that jostling made the ring come loose and fall. But, I continue to wear the replacement version every day; it’s simply nicer.)