One amazing thing he says is about the temptation of Eve. He says that Adam was present when Eve was being tempted. That Adam could've intervened but didn't and even after he stands back and watches Eve eat the forbidden fruit, he could've chosen God over Eve but he didn't.
This created a lot of anger and conflict in my mind. Anger because I looked back over the history of Christianity and Islam and I see centuries of blame. How many times because of the story of The Fall from Eden have women been punished and persecuted? How many women have been made to feel weak and inferior because they have been accused of being the reason Evil is in the world? That women are the reason for estrangement from God? Then I began to think. It's just that kind of anger, the broad-stroke anger against men in general that I was feeling, that is actually the same sort of anger that the self-righteous men who believed they had been wronged by Eve and that the daughters of Eve should be punished were feeling. The world is too diverse and complicated for blanket accusations. Even the Bible had the Good Samaritan, who should have given in to prejudice, but didn't and even went the extra mile to save someone who by cultural norms should've been offensive to him. Meeting each person on a case by case basis, and attempting to see and figure out all the good and all the bad in that person, loving him unconditionally as God would, putting up boundaries, fair and firm. to protect your own lovely God-given soul from the bad, opening yourself up to drink the good the other has to offer into your heart, and deciding how far into your life each person will be allowed is a HUGE amount of work. Especially because all the while you are doing this, your own bad and good, cultural references and judgment, childhood relationship issues, and worries about bills, money, family, and self-worth are all clouding your ability to see and hear the other person. When you think about it, stereotypes and snap-judgments save us a lot of psychological strain and stress. They are easy, a cheap way to handle relationships with others in our world. What's the price? What is the real price of paying all that energy into a relationship, or going the cheaper judgmental route and being done with it?
Long ago, I read somewhere about the price of everything in our lives. For everything obtained, material or spiritual, there is a price. The accepted view in the material world is that things of great value generally cost much more than things of little value. Things of great value usually are of a much higher quality and purity than things of little value. Things of great value are usually long-lived, cherished and enjoyed for generations, where things that are come by cheaply don't last long, aren't cherished or given much thought, and give very short-term satisfaction. I've come to believe that it is the same for a man's inner world as well. Quality thinking is bought by spending time on reading, thinking, and listening to others who have also spent time on thought. Quality relationships are bought by people who spend time and energy on becoming better listeners, better acceptors of self and others, who try to really see the core of each person they come in contact with. Deep lasting awareness of self and others is bought with a price. The price is going beyond stereotypes, and hashing out a conscious way of thinking, knowing that pain, fear, anger, or other strong emotions will accompany that process. It's asking a Higher Power for guidance until we finally make a resolution and act upon it, knowing that, based upon our severely limited knowledge and ability, that we may be making a mistake. It's willingness to accept responsibility for a mistake, then go through the whole painful process again to make a better choice than last time. Sometimes I deliberate and ruminate, and decide. Those decisions are the ones that feel the sweetest to me. They seem to expand my soul, somehow make me into something a little bigger. Sometimes I am miserable, tired, or too busy to deliberate. Sometimes I just want to avoid the pain, let someone else decide, give up my personal power and go with whatever popular opinion seems to be. Actually I’ve made a lot of decisions this way. So many of those cheap decisions, in afterthought, caused a lot more anguish, embarrassment, and regret down the road than I would ever have imagined.
Ultimately I guess that perhaps it's not so important whether Eve tempted Adam, whether Adam was present or off in another part of Paradise doing cool Paradise things, or if Adam could've stopped Eve or didn't. Who’s to blame Adam or Eve? The result is and always will be the same. That's all in the past. We are here, we are human, we have right now, and we have all our relationships that are right here, right now. We are alive today and we have a life to spend, our currency today is time and energy. However any of us came by the next 24 hours, I am certain that if you are human, it was hard-won. Love as unconditionally as you possibly can. See as judgment free as you possibly can. Embrace joy and sorrow as the twins that they surely are. Seek and search out quality as much as possible!
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