A Monday Afternoon Ramble | Of Saints, Monogamy & Other Animals

Among my favorite photographs of him. Love is in the details right? I grew up in Europe and in France and in England and Scotland and traveling through Italy and Spain and so was always seeing these stone saints everywhere I went. They were always watching over me, no matter where I was - their stiff fingers pointing skyward, often a finger missing ~ some superstition that if you steal the finger that points it will bring you luck or some such thing. If you ask me, I would guess the opposite to be true: that doing such a thing would send you straight to hell, but what the heck do I know. I did note today that I found a saint right here in my neighborhood (turned to stone of course) and he was, indeed, missing the pointing finger, so I suppose this tradition has carried over to America, or at least, the Italian section where I live in Boston.

I keep reading these articles and books that tell me of the myth of monogamy. That we are animals and that mating for life is just not natural and etc and while I do not dispute the animal part, because that would be just too stupid for words, what I do dispute is that all animals are necessarily not monogamous or are infact promiscuous be

cause of some Darwinistic notion that wouldn’t even make sense. I think if you studied Darwin, one would know that, for the most part, it doesn’t make too much sense to be promiscuous because of disease and family and etc and that in order to survive, we need to stay within packs and prides and gaggles and murders (a murder of crows) and the like. That we need to stick together.

Perhaps that means that in my group, let’s say, that all of us Episcopalians are mostly monogamous but we all sleep with each other, sort of like that film (which I love, by the way), The Ice Storm and the awful key party fiasco. Watch it and you’ll see. This is what happens when everybody starts fucking everybody else. Things just sort of fall apart and whatever judgment you make - and I make no judgment - it may be right for you, wrong for me, or vice versa. I cannot say. I can say at this moment that I find this to be wrong for me. That i don’t think it would be helpful and that more, I would not like my husband to sleep with other women. If he wants to, I suppose I can’t stop him and I would rather he not lie, and so therefore I tell him, If you must, just don’t treat me like an idiot: don’t lie to me and come home stinking of her….

Article Author: Sadi Ranson-Polizzotti

Sadi Ranson-Polizzotti is a published writer in both the United States and Europe. She is widely known for her music commentary, particularly her writings about Bob Dylan about whom she runs a highly-trafficked site. …

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