So how did we get from utter bliss to running around scared covered in shame and a fig leaf?
No more days at the park, catergorizing, and getting to know the animals to name them, gone were the days of daily being in the presence of a joyful artist and creator, and gone were the days when you looked at your beloved with a sense of profound joy for out of the abundant yet lonely wilderness, someone who inspires and understands you finally speaks and you realize the beauty of humanity; yours and theirs.
Instead, days are burdened. There is no time for parks and paradise and the animals that you once named, studied, and cared for are killed for food or kept at safe distances so that they don't eat you. And as for your beloved, you yo-yo from sanity to insanity. The carefree days of abundance are now stressed out days of trying to keep things together... You struggle for inspiration and understanding and it's hard to imagine delighting over your own humanity let alone your beloved's.
But hey, you have your good days and you have your bad days.
Paradise is complicated in its simplicity anyhow.. Living in peace, harmony, enjoying a new day to learn, gets boring. And thinking.. takes energy.
Genesis chapter 3 always fascinates me and blogging my thoughts allows me to linger over some things a little more before I take on next week's homework.
Two special trees.. a tree of life... a tree of immortality? and the famously forbidden tree of knowledge of good and bad. Was it a set-up? I can't say that it was a set up.. every game has rules to play by and we don't get upset over those rules. Upsets usually occur when someone doesn't believe in playing by the rules...
Was it the fruit.. did it unleash ominous powers? No, Eve, though misguided.. did have some naughty intentions. She had EVERYTHING and yet she was curious about the one thing that was off limits. Now that kind of appetite is what got her in trouble and talking to a spectacular looking crafty creature that had a knack for taking things out of context and making her confused wasn't a good move in the end.
I had to think of the Eve in me... were there any forbidden trees that were taxing my attentions and was I hanging out with toxic crafty creatures? Do I place myself in situations that might compromise my bit of daily paradise?
Yes. I did have an unusual day in my piece of paradise recently....
Adam (my mathematician) has been busy with his little corner of Eden when a beautiful and compelling creature came by to say hello.
I didn't fall for the fruit joke. The tempting creature modulated their tactics and the intellectual exercise to overcome emotion was quite a game.
The creature spoke into my insecurities, knowing me very well. The creature was very subtle yet aggressive; intelligent. Knowing that I was not stupid and having an opportunity to flaunt their cleverness, the creature delighted over their moves like a game of chess. A conversation that had little wisps to pull at my insecurities and graceful wisps that spoke to my desires and my values... even...
Eve's downfall was not by a bulldozing coarse creature... she was tempted by a friendly sounding eloquence that spoke to a clear space marked for her baggage...
Maybe she wondered if the fruit was really deadly and wanted to test God and check out if God was going to come in and save her at the last moment... maybe she didn't believe that consequences would follow and maybe she wasn't thinking at all and just let the creature run the show while she went with "the flow."
In the end, it's not the tempting fruit that marks downfall rather it's the thinking or not thinking that surrounds it.
I am happy with the paradise that is my life and I didn't let myself get pulled in by a sense of lacking and scarcity.. I am able to see and value what I have and not be driven by what I don't have. And I was able to recognize that I was speaking with a crafty creature because they didn't really care about how I thought or felt --- the conversation became about how they can persuade me to think and feel in a certain way to get the results they were vying.
If you don't think... someone else will happily do the thinking for you. And that truly will mark the death of one.
Funny, how one gains wisdom by NOT eating of the fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and bad.
JNET
Woot, a nice twist there with your last line.
ReplyDeletePeople do forget that they still can learn by not doing things I suppose. But they are blinded by the lenses they choose to wear, where physical appearance is everything...
SOrry I'm rambling! :p