“Sorting it Out” for me,
means tying up some loose strings.
Some other final thoughts
on The Red Tent by Anita Diamant:
(1)
Circumcision:
the whole ritual becomes a symbol or precursor of mass murder or genocide.
Three of Dinah’s brothers – Simon, Levy, and Reuben – hire a small army of
goons and invade the walled city of Shechem at night and kill almost all of the
Egyptian men by slitting their throats. To please their king, Hamor, all the male
inhabitants of Shechem had been circumcised and had agreed to this because King
Hamor’s son Shalem wanted to marry Dinah, the Jewish Isaac’s granddaughter.
Hamor and Shalem were also circumcised, which they agreed to as a peace gesture
and soon after were murdered by Simon, Levy, and Reuben and their goons.
I think the author’s intent was to portray
men as having a bad killing instinct whereas women are life-givers and
nurturers. Men have it in their DNA to kill and, if able, to commit genocide. I
think the author was being a little too pessimistic. Although I note the
popularity of boxing and that of the John Wayne style of Western in which it
was perfectly OK for white people to plan the extermination of the native
American population, and earlier the Pilgrims doing pretty much the same thing.
(2)
The once-a-month menstrual cycle explains
why all the ancient moon deities were women: Innana, Diana, Luna, etc. The
monthly cycle of the moon includes: no moon, crescent moon, half-moon, ¾-moon,
full moon, and it takes one month.
(3)
In the ancient tribe of Jacob in the tents
of Mamre, children with birth defects were left in the desert to die.
(4)
I asked the Librarian, Della, at the
Lakewood Library if they had a gay and Lesbian book section. Della said not
exactly but gay and Lesbian literature, fiction, and non-fiction, has its own
Dewey decimal number so can be researched. I said most of gay literature that I
had read so far was either extremely politically polemic or just plain gossipy.
Della recommended:
(a) I left it on the Mountain by Kevin
Sessums (2015) – the psychological and spiritual journey of an AIDS patient.
(b)
“And the Band played on.” Starring Matthew
Modine. In a word, The French (Institute Pasteur) discovered the AIDS virus
first. Dr. Gallo of the American CDC claimed otherwise.
(c) Sarah Waters who wrote the novel The
Paying Guests (published 2014). This is a Lesbian murder mystery.
© 8 May 2017
About
the Author
I was born in 1944, I lived most of my life in New York City,
Queens County. I still commute there. I worked for many years as a Caseworker
for New York City Human Resources Administration, dealing with mentally
impaired clients, then as a social work Supervisor dealing with homeless PWA's.
I have an apartment in Wheat Ridge, CO. I retired in 2002. I have a few
interesting stories to tell. My boyfriend Kevin lives in New York City. I
graduated Queens College, CUNY, in 1967.
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