I have a transparent snake’s skin that someone found walking around the fields in Maine. He gave it to me and I saved it, thinking one day my baby grandchildren would find that exoskeleton fascinating. The other day I found a faded photo of the critter. And it made me wonder…

Fast forward to this summer: I discovered an old curiosity I had gifted one of my nephews. I should have kept it for myself, since I am a Scorpio! I remember how thrilled I was to find a creepy crawly immortally entombed in plastic at a tired old “store” at a US Government compound in Kabul. What are aunts for if not to do wacky things for their nephews and nieces?

I also just discovered that scorpions, like snakes, shed their mortal coils, as Hamlet would eloquently state. Sometimes, I wish I could do the same.