The Power Of The Pearl I

Welcome to this edition of The Preppy Chronicles.

In this edition I will delve into the world of Pearls and the power of the Pearl in the life of the  WASP and Preppy.  I will at this time concede that I cannot possibly present a complete treaties on the subject. However, with that said, I have decided that to give you my best effort I must break this subject into 3 intertwined posts. The first and second will give you a base of understanding of the history of the pearl in our culture,  the third will explore the mystery that captures the very heart, the very essence of who we are, to understand the Pearl is to understand the soul of the WASP and Preppy.

As most of you are aware, this blog is not about teaching you how to dress and act like a WASP or a Preppy  but rather, the various physiological patterns behind our dress and actions

The Pearl speaks volumes about  our belief system and the  world in which we the WASP and the Preppie live.

The WASP lives by the inner mantra… Love The Pearl… Be The Pearl, Love The Pearl… Be the Pearl, Love the Pearl……

Now,

Shall we all hold hands,

Sing a song,

Pass the basket and drink the Kool-aid?

You can laugh now.

The historiography of the pearl is very extensive and interesting, but given the narrow scope of this particular narrative it is of secondary importance. We shall begin our journey with these two.

For those that have no clue that would be Henry the VIII and the always effervescent Anne Boleyn.

For the purpose of this narrative, I will be referring to Henry as Kipper, and I will refer to Anne, as the lovely Bunny Boleyn.

Kipper came to the throne in the year of 1503, being a lustful and reckless 17-year-old  boy. A most powerful lust, for all that is beautiful, and out of his reach, took control of young Kipper and he lived life with great zeal and abandon [ that is WASP speak for:  Kipper has a problem, he has a strong addiction to Power, Sex, Money, Food, and Collecting ] In his obsessive quest, he amassed a great deal of jewels including Pearls.

Kipper, very much liked his pearls and was always giving them to the women that he collected. Enter the lovely Bunny Boleyn. Shall we leave it at this ‘ Bunny like her pearls ‘ not the vernacular of the day, but I am the one telling this story.

Bunny Boleyn did for the Pearl, what Jackie Kennedy did for Lilly Pulitzer.  Bunny was and still is an iconic figure. From all the accounts that I have read, she was well-loved by the population and followed by the paparazzi of her day. She took the pearl, which is the worlds oldest known gem, and made it sexy and classy, truly something to be desired. Bunny popularized the pearl in her life and sealed its fate with her death.

The Pearl has always stood for Power, Wealth and Position. I think that we all have seen Botticelli’s  ” The Birth of Venus “, this masterpiece from the year 1486, also reaffirms the concept that the Pearl also symbolized Pure love, and that the pearl was somehow connected to the deepest part of a humans soul, connecting us to the Divine.

And with a swoosh we move forward, first however, we must step back for a bit of information that will be  vital to the overall understanding. The pearl is a natural occurrence, more about that later. The important bit here is that the Chinese have ‘ cultured  ’the pearl since the 5th century  by attaching objects to the inside of the shell creating what is known as a Blister Pearl. In the 1920s Kokichi Mikimoto created a market for the Akoya or the unattached  Pearl. The overall relevance of this bit of  knowledge will become much clearer in the next installment.

This will be our starting point in the next edition, I will also discuss Pilgrims, pearls and the present. In the third installment we will explore the mental, emotional and often times irrational connection that the American WASP and Preppy have to this the oldest of gems. We will also explore such aspects as the role of the pearl in the sex lives of the WASP and Preppy.

Please join me at my sister site  The Preppy Chronicles II

Always,Bumby

The Preppy Chronicles Edition II Volume II

Tags: Anne Boleyn, Botticelli, Bunny, HenryVIII, Jackie Kennedy, Kipp, Lilly Pulitzer, Pearls, Perspective, Preppy, Preppy Chronicles, The Birth of Venus, WASP

This entry was posted on November 18, 2010 at 11:38 AM and is filed under All that's Preppy/WASP. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.