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The Ide(a)s of March
The Ide(a)s of March
Author: Jo Rushby
Date: 2024-03-29
Date: 2024-03-29
'Changeis a measure of time and, in the autumn, time seems speeded up. What was is notand never again will be; what is is change.'
March.That month remembered in the history books as the time of the killing of JuliusCaesar. It changed the course of history as the Roman Empire was plunged intowars without end.
InDurban, it is the time of Ramadan, Lent and that most joyous of gatherings, theHare Krishna Festival of Chariots, where colour, song and dance give rise tomany leaps of faith.
Andfor those in tune to the shifting of nature, March 20th symbolizes the autumnalequinox, a time of equal day and night, balance and harmony.
And ofcourse, it is also a time of the Easter Bunny. Rabbits are everywhere. Insupermarket aisles, forecourts of petrol stations, and even on election postersthat seek to draw you in with promises of Carrots for Life. Throughout history,rabbits have (mis)led people down various holes. The most famous of courseappears in Alice's Adventures in Wonderland. Remember how she is bewitched bya White Rabbit, sliding after him into a hole that sucks her in, only toland safely.
Andthere, she is in the Nirvana that seems like a cavalcade of election promises.Tiny door, no problem. 'Drink me' and Alice shrivels up. Then, like MarieAntoinette, a cake that says 'Eat me'. She grows to the size of a Member ofParliament.
Aliceis anxious and tired. She meets a Caterpillar who gives her a Magic Mushroom,making her smaller and larger at the same time. Everything is Non-Sense. Andthen Alice meets the most famous rabbit in all of literature, the March Hare atthe Mad Hatters Tea Party.
March. Itis a time to celebrate renewal, life and death, so that the wheels cancontinue turning. But it is also a time to be wary. Remember that line fromShakespeare's Julius Caesar; 'beware the Ides of March.'
It'stime to say Bunny Chow!
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