Passover got in the way of a lot of life this year. I wasn’t ready for it (not that I ever am, but this year I was particularly unready). My discomfiture was compounded by a lot of things going on at work, and resulted in just my bring completely overwhelmed. No time for reflection, despite the likely need for and value of it.

Not that I haven’t had a lot of bloggable thoughts waft through my consciousness. (don’t we all?)

So, I’ll return to the blogosphere with the latest craze that has consumed our household consciousness – much to the chagrin of my husband and me – Power Rangers!

I thought I might have missed out on many of these boy-targeted superhero syndications, but somehow or other S, and closely following J, discovered Power Rangers, and that explains why J is now trying to go to sleep with a pair of chopsticks stuck in the waistband of his jammies (“They’re my swords.”).

There are hundreds, maybe thousands of hours of Power Rangers, in various incarnations and combinations, available on Netflix Instant View, and S knows how to find them. I can understan the appeal – the plots are formulaic and repetitive, good guys are 100% Good and the bad guys are foolish and inept. There are moments of tension, when it seems that all is lost, but you know it will work out because natural laws needn’t apply. The Power Rangers can always pull out some mystical power.

This newest obsession can lead to some odd conversations.  This Saturday morning, I found myself arguing with S about Samurai, and whether they are real (“Yes”), and whether they are Power Rangers (“No!).  I tried to explain that Samurai are historically real, but that Power Rangers are fiction, and just because the story in the episodes refers to a Samurai master, this does not make Power Rangers real.  I got nowhere with this argument.

So, these days in our home, the usual half-hour of wrestling in the morning between boys (another topic that I’ve been writing in my head, and will have to be separate post) is influenced by Power Rangers stances, moves, and expressions.  And these battles continue throughout the day – i’m embedding a video i made a couple of days ago, with the boys showing off their gymnastic achievements followed by a mock Ninja-style battle, informed by Power Rangers dialog (such as it is).  The first minute or so is J performing his newly acquired somersault, and then S executing his headstand, which he has been determined to acquire.  Handstands are next.

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4X8-5rrXK1s&w=420&h=315]