The Handmaid's Tale

Tuesday was my first day at my other job: proctoring at the Wren Building. The first hour of the day was spent learning how to open the building, which lights to turn on, which keys open what, how to work the handicapped lift, and figuring out how to use the tools of the Wren, such as the mallet. Yes, there is a mallet.

The rest of the day was spent reading, because really, there's not a whole lot that needs doing at the Wren during the summer. I sat in the mostly quiet and empty information center reading The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood, and I finished it later that night. The novel is amazing and I highly recommend it to those of you who have never read it. The premise is that in the 1990s the Christian right and the Feminist movement joined together in an attempt to protect women by stripping them of their rights. Women can no longer hold property, vote, dress as they choose, engage in sexual behavior of their own volition, and-- most shockingly-- they aren't allowed to read. The narrator is a women who is now a handmaid, which means she lives in the house of a childless Commander and his wife, and once a month she has to sleep with the Commander and hope he makes her pregnant, otherwise she will be condemned as an Unwoman. The narrator remembers the time before-- the time we are experiencing now, for instance-- when she was married and had a child of her own. She had a job, money, friends, read books and magazines, and painted her toenails.

The scary part of the book is thinking how easily such a thing could happen, how easily rights can be taken away. It's also scary to think how much we take for granted and how hard women before us have worked to allow us rights-- such as the right to vote or even the right to sign a lease without a man co-signing (which, through the 1960s and 1970s couldn't happen). We have the right to use birth control, the right to see whomever we choose, the right to read and the right to acquire any knowledge that we so desire about any subject. With some of the current events of the day (the murder of Dr. Tiller and the permanent closure of his clinic), I think it's important that women read this book to understand that we cannot let any of our rights go without putting up a fight. It's a slippery-slope from where we are now to where The Handmaid's Tale begins.

On a happier note, Tuesday night I made smoothies at Richard's with Maggie, Elijah, and Christina (most of them new friends, except for Maggie). They were most excellent-- strawberry cookies and cream. Today my cousin Josh is arriving for a visit and we are going to a dinner party at Maggie's and Elijah's, which is very exciting as Elijah is a magnificent chef!