Somehow it is always the women who ignore 

the god-issued command -- do not open the beautiful box, 

do not eat the apple, do not let your curiosity 

get the best of you. 

Lot was Abraham’s nephew, his wife is not named

but we know who she is, a disobedient

woman who paid with her life. An example

of someone who chose worldly goods over duty,

the tale goes, to look one last time

at the destruction of her home where she raised

her daughters. The same daughters Lot

offered to the angry mob in Sodom and Gomorrah

to protect the angels, god’s messengers, 

hiding in their home.  Lot said, Take them, my daughters,

who have never slept with a man. Do what you like

with them. After the mob rejected the virgins,

the family fled the city in safety if they promised

not to look back. Perhaps as they ran,

Lot’s wife thought of her life in a new land 

with a husband who showed his true colors – 

a man who used his children as bait to divert

violent men. Following her husband

and daughters, she chose to turn home and consider

the enormity of what she lost among the fire

and brimstone. She hardly felt the salt ash

cover her, solidifying her sorrow forever. 

​

 

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