Tuesday, July 3, 2012

Knowledge


There are facets to everything.

Some people talk about two sides to the same coin. That’s true, as far as it goes. Male and female; good and evil; black and white; up and down. But, the closer one looks, the harder it is to be a coin, the easier to be a spectrum, or a jewel. Genderqueer; well-meant harm and accidental help; gray; sideways or counterclockwise.

There’s an old story. The stories that survive that long must be important, mustn’t they? If the Book of Kells were just another story, it would be lost. We lose so many important ones, oh dear Alexandrian library, how could anything unimportant remain?

But then, what could be unimportant?

The story begins with paradise, where another provides all food and shelter, where bodies are not yet sexual, nor shameful. Then a man gives birth to the first woman, donating a bone, a deep part of himself, just as a woman risks her life and health in any normal pregnancy. The paradise remains—this birth is odd, to us, but no sin.

(Father did it; Father can do no wrong.)

The great provider, the one who gives shelter from the outside and keeps food in this home, makes one rule. Though there are many sources of food, many fruit trees, there is one they may not eat of. It is poison, if they eat it they shall die.

Then, a snake—as in any story, intelligent, and as is common, a force opposed to the order of things. Any creature who is always bright and usually chaotic will often be trickster, as this one may be.

Try the fruit of the tree. No ill will come. Try it.

(The snake appears to be of paradise. What reason had she to distrust it? What reason had she to trust it over Father?)

She takes a bite, and has an epiphany, or the reverse of one. A realization of self, a recognition of body. She covers herself, and goes to the man whose rib was the first part of her to exist.

(She is of paradise. What reason had he to distrust her? What reason had he to trust her over Father?)

He eats of the tree, and has the same inverse-epiphany, or so close as to appear identical. He sees why she covered herself, and covers himself.

The provider sees that they have covered themselves, sees that they have eaten of the tree, casts them from paradise. Casts them into where they must work for their own food, out of Father’s house.

Some call this Original Sin. Indeed, it is the first time any broke a rule.

Others question. The tree was a Tree of Knowledge. They were curious, without experience, without knowledge. How could they have done anything else? Father was wrong to expect different

Others say it isn’t wicked, or good, but another facet on the same jewel. The boy and girl needed to grow into the first man and woman. The woman ate first, as girls mature more quickly than boys. She gifted him knowledge, as a member of the tribe would initiate another into the world of the adult. The questioners are right, Father paved the way, but not to bad. Simply to the next thing that would happen.

Regardless. They were forbidden the tree, and ate of it. They grew more capable, and had to work on their own. Such is the way of the world.

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