Under His Eye...

timing is everything in life...just ask Margaret Atwood and her creation The Handmaid's Tale...I admit I am late to the Hulu series...binging through Season Two as I type...but as both a reader, and writer, I was not late to the game when the book was released in the mid-80's...a fictional...some said science fictional look at life in 2005...gee, what could have been her inspiration...the good times of Thatcher and Reagan?...the book, revered, dismissed and sometimes banned left more than a little food for thought...and now, a few days shy of 61, sometimes it is hard to fathom how much things have changed for women...and not...for me...as a girl in the 60's heading off to school...having to wear pants under my dress on cold days, then remove before class started...I look at the credit cards in my wallet...it wasn't until the Equal Credit Opportunity Act of 1974 that women could get a credit card without the co-signature of a husband or male family member...Mondale takes Geraldine Ferraro on the ticket in 1984...McCain takes Sarah Palin in 2008...and now Kamala Harris...always a bridesmaid in my time...maybe not in the future...back to Handmaid's Tale...the series has chosen to modernize it to reflect our times...interracial couples...gay couples...Atwood was more blunt about what would happen to people of color in her Gilead...but the red cloaks remain...the simmering anger and fear when watching are elicited...in the U.S. today birthrates are declining...reasons range from  economics... choice...environment's possible influence on fertility (something to ponder on Earth Day)...and that, my friends, is one statistic that creates underlying panic in some circles...circles with clout and money...and so I continue to binge and watch Elizabeth Moss and clan...and note painful similarities to changing mores and laws...and wonder...why the hell I chose to watch this at the second year marker of this endless pandemic...but as much as I'd rather watch a repeat of SVU I find I cannot look away...episode after episode...under his eye...

wabbit season...

chocolate bunny rabbits...Cadbury eggs...Peeps...pristine baskets wrapped in a spring palette...the youthful joys of Easter are quite lovely...and as much as Passover will always be my favorite Jewish holiday...you gotta admit...how can chocolate covered matzoh or macaroons compare?...cause after the chocolate rush...they sit in the pit of your stomach like lead...which explains our forefathers wandering in the desert for 40 years...that, and you, might be thinking that Moses never would have turned to Zipporah for directions...but I digress...it really is a season of rebirth, religiously speaking, for many...and our second such season during covid...the pandemic creates a sort of underlying fear that permeates everything...kind of brands us without conscious realization...we miss...no, we crave the rituals...the things that tie us to one another and keep us sane...and grounded...painting, then hiding Easter eggs...the long Passover table meticulously set with the finery of relatives long gone...this year, depending on where you sit in the vaccine or antibody curve...maybe there was a table set at Passover...or one today waiting for relatives to take seats after church...or maybe you are not ready...and so it is small or zoomed...whatever your celebration...we all know deep down we pause and look forward to next spring...wabbit and Moses season...healthy with loved ones...our only complaint - MLB trades...as we reach for a glass to toast the host...Happy Passover and Happy Easter everyone!