courtesy netflix.com

I recently finished viewing the sophomore season of Netflix’s prison dramedy Orange is the New Black. Said viewings occurred mostly during my toddler’s naptime, which–in case you’re wondering–makes for a disorienting afternoon born of incongruous situations: lesbian love scenes and prison sewage crises in front of me, a two-year-old’s babbling in the monitor beside me. Anyway. After watching all thirteen episodes, I sought to find a cohesive narrative among the season’s themes (and a reason to justify watching almost fourteen hours of TV instead of coming up with a solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict or…decorating our next son’s nursery). Instead, what I came up with was a list of life lessons taught to me by the ladies of Litchfield, who resemble much of life itself: funny, sad, violent, transexual–I mean, transforming, and real.

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