As enter we enter the Chinese Zodiac Year of the Snake, I’ve been ruminating on them. Snakes, I’ve never been truly terrified of them. One day as child, I saw my first one up close. A small grey snake lying motionless on the stone steps next to the house. I was usually more curious than fearful and approached the fallen serpent, which looked like I might have lost a conflict with a bird. I left the snake’s body where it lay and excitedly went to tell my father. He, who had always encouraged my curiosity, suggested putting the snake in a jar with alcohol and presenting it my science teacher. So I did. There I was, this little blond kid, riding on the school bus holding a snake in a jar. It was placed on a classroom shelf with other specimens under glass, Whether coiled in the branches of the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil, around the caduceus of Hermes or biting its own tail in the Ouroboros, the Eternal Return, snakes have symbolized both poison and healing, famously shedding their...
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