context is all

upon finishing The Handmaid's Tale:

does it have to be us against them?
remember what dawkins said about the relations between the sexes...
wired for manipulation
me against them
me against him
me against her
us against them
us against each other
us against ourselves
me
us
a muse
amuse

i feel like all i know are the extreme ends of it-
i know too little and i know too much-
damned doomed drained
lifeblood drawn
and trapped, unmoving, in print or in painting.
living our lives through the imagined lens of another.
we know how to put it on.  we are raised to put it on.

i know of no middle.  there must be a middle.  i have never seen a middle.
what does a middle look like?
is it an empty that doesn't feel empty?
a satisfying, healthy hunger?
a full that is just right?

"nolite te bastardes carborundorum"
i guess we thought we were pretty smart back then.