April 17, 2021 PLEASE RELEASE ME

Just got back from a MUCH needed little get away. Felt like I was released from prison. Seriously--I 

haven't been anywhere OR gone to a restaurant with my husband since COVID. I didn't even care that it rained and snowed the whole time. Took a little trip to the Berkshires. It's a lovely drive with great little towns and BOOKSTORES. We stopped at an interesting book store in Stockbridge and then went to the Norman Rockwell Museum. What a treasure. It's hard to believe that Rockwell painted 321 different covers for the Saturday Evening Post---starting when he was just 17 years old. That's A LOT OF WORK. Imagine  painting  a cover a month. That sounds CRAZY enough but he also had to decide what to paint first. That would be a real problem for me because I'm so indecisive.  Williamstown is also a lovely area. Stayed overnight and then visited The Clark. NOW THAT'S A REAL GEM. The collection includes Renoir,  Homer, Singer Sargent, Constable, Turner, Degas, Toulouse-Lautrec, Mary Cassett, Monet, Manet, Durer, Pissaro, Remington.........and many more. Bookstores, museums, good food and drink--that's all I need. Oh yeah--a good pair running shoes and a yoga mat too. Peace. 

I just finished a very interesting novel written by Sue Monk Kidd called The Book of Longings that really got me thinking--What if???  In this novel, Kidd imagined that Jesus had a wife and her name was Ana. Ana was from a wealthy family in Sepphoris. She was an independent, scholarly woman who was  determined to have her own voice, but her family had other ideas. Against her will, she was originally betrothed to an older widower who suddenly dies. After a chance encounter with Jesus, her life changes.  Ana and Jesus marry and move to Nazareth to live with his family which includes his mother Mary and some siblings. Ana supports Jesus and learns to cope with his choices even though she doesn't fully understand, but also finds her own voice with the help of her Aunt Yaltha. Ana is eventually forced to flee to Alexandria with her aunt where she realizes her goals and discovers a sisterhood. This is essentially the story of the power of women.  Who knows--maybe there was a strong wife in Jesus' life. Scholars admit that their knowledge of the life of Jesus is very limited--especially his lost years between childhood and his ministry, so we really don't know. Why shouldn't he have had a wife? At that time in history, men were married by the time they were twenty. Kidd spent four years researching to write the book so read it and take from it what you will. It's about 400 pages and worth the read.