This Is a Test, This Is Just a Test
The Tree of Knowledge stood alone and untouched
Forbidden and forgotten, its fruit was low-hanging
While pointing to the skies above, as the nonesuch
And the only test in a world that was unchanging
Let's set the record straight.
The original Eve — that is, the Original Sin Eve — the mother of the human race, has been vilified from scripture to folklore as the ruin of everyone. Before she fell for the serpent's deceits, life was perfect. The climate was temperate, lending itself to unapologetic nudity. There were no issues. No tigers conspired to jump and devour Adam. No fruit was unreachable for Eve. No bugs stung them.
Life was sweet.
But I call to mind a Twilight Zone episode, "A Nice Place to Visit," in which Rocky Valentine, a small-time crook and gambler, is killed by police and goes to Heaven. He is given a luxury apartment, beautiful women, and a penchant for winning at the casino every single time he plays. Like in Eden, for Rocky, life is sweet. This is until he tires of the predictability and painful absence of challenges. He can't even rob a bank; the predestined outcome would take any thrill out of it.
Everything is given to Rocky, all women do whatever he wants, and his luck never runs out. Bored, unchallenged, and unfulfilled, he asks to go to "the other place," instead of Heaven.
His guide, Pip, answers, "Heaven? Whatever gave you the idea you were in Heaven? This IS the other place!"
Adam and Eve weren't in Paradise; they were in the Twilight Zone.
Content and controlled were the first woman and man
Dancing the perfect life around them, betaken
No needs, nor frets, nor troubles outran
All but one tree was theirs for the taking
A mischievous thought synapsed in Eve's mind like such a serpent a'slitherin'.
Yet the succulence wafted odoriferous on breezes
Pulling on her perfect forebrain amnesic
Making her wonder what possibility teases
When tasting the fruit, of arboreal, epistemic
The Tree of Knowledge, the school for learning good from evil, had been off-limits. Why? Eve wondered what she was accomplishing with her miraculous gift of life.
Adam was clueless, like a man in a mall. Perhaps the seat of wisdom was all in that one rib.
Eve had been given an excellent brain and wondered, Am I a pet? Like the tiger that doesn't devour? What is my purpose? Certainly not just to please Adam. To please God? Does God want just a lapdog?
Obeying or disobeying Him is not the test!
My "test" is whether or not I take this incredible brain God gave me and use it. Really use it! To be my best. To reach perfection. To achieve self-actualization. To strive, to yearn, to invoke ambition. To be what I could be. Yes, she thought, that's the test.
We are in His image. So...why the Tree?
Eve strolled toward the Tree and thus invented the "near occasion of sin": she had no official intention of reaching for one of the apples and taking a bite. But what if she couldn't help it?
Tempted by the unknown to take one for the team
Eve sat in the tree's shade and basked in its warning
Of the one thing she should neither risk nor scheme
Lest she exchange her sweet life for life's mourning
The fruit of the Tree of Knowledge was low-hanging for a reason!
She easily plucked the apple. Hell, it was about to fall off. Without regret, she lifted it to her mouth and bit, not tempted, but enlightened.
And God was pleased. He knew his creations, baited, would bite. They passed the test. Eve, anyway. Adam was reluctant.
"What were you thinking?" he demanded of her.
"What I was thinking is that I have free will. I live. I choose. I either celebrate the rewards or suffer consequences. But it's life. And now life is me! Now, Adam, you eat!" she commanded him.
There being not many authority figures in the Garden, he'd readily obey the last whoever to command him. While his sin wasn't very original, like Eve's, it counted.
They traded Paradise for clothing. Childbearing in pain, gnashing of teeth, and brow sweat weren't easier, but life now was truly existential. And better. Just ask Rocky Valentine.
Eve inspires me because she reasoned and gambled. But unlike Rocky, the outcome wasn't predestined. The loving God is the one who allows us to do it on our own. To grow in His image by ourselves.
Because of Eve, we passed His test.
Our first parents had made a choice
To know apples from oranges, evil from good
Swap naked for clothes and silence for voice
Choose vicissitudes of life to not inherit godhood