The tulip is not a reason for disbelief in the hanged man, or vice versa. Each thing is valid and really there. It is through a field of such valid objects that I must pick my way, every day and in every way.  I put a lot of effort into making such distinctions. I need to make them. I need to be very clear, in my own mind.

I feel  a tremor in the woman beside me.  Is she crying? In what way could it make her look good? I can’t afford to know.  My own hands are clenched, I note, tight around the handle of my basket. I   won’t give anything away. Ordinary, said Aunt Lydia, is what you are used to.  This may not seem ordinary to you now, but after a time, it will. It will become ordinary.

From “The Handmaid’s Tale” by Margaret Atwood

Magnificent prose from a brilliant Canadian writer.   It brings to life the fear of a woman, a victim of a dark regime that uses Biblical arguments to subject their citizens to its tyranny:

“I feel  a tremor in the woman beside me.  Is she crying? In what way could it make her look good? I can’t afford to know.  My own hands are clenched, I note, tight around the handle of my basket. I   won’t give anything away.”

Under these circumstances,  the women are the first ones to suffer the most and lose their freedom  before the watchful eyes of zealous men and other women sold to their cause.   Women are the worst  enemies of women.   People will look the other way, hoping the impositions will not affect them: “Ordinary, said Aunt Lydia, is what you are used to.  This may not seem ordinary to you now, but after a time, it will. It will become ordinary.”

Does it ring a bell?