The Fruits of Labor: Fall to Grace

In the beginning, Adam led a perfectly idle life. He would stretch out on the pasture soaking the sun while lazily eating fruits and berries from the trees and hedges. He would eat of all the fruits that were permitted and gave no thought or heed to the forbidden or disallowed ones in the outskirts of the garden. He never thought twice about disobedience, and he utterly lacked curiosity for anything outside of his purview.

Nor did the woman Eve - assigned to him by the Father - arouse any inklings of curiosity or interest. To him, she perfectly blended in with nature, as if she were one of the animals grazing the fields or a piece of fruit dangling from a tree. Why he needed a companion after all was beyond him, but such wonderment crossed his mind only sporadically and served no purpose. There was neither past nor future, but nothing but a present stretched out along the endless horizon. He was not reliving the same day; there was only day and the day was and is and would always be only to-day.

UNTIL Eve brought him pieces of the forbidden fruit plucked from the hidden corners of the garden. Adam, who knew nothing but mindless obedience, did not think twice; he instinctively partook of the fruit given to him by the woman created in his likeness. The fruit tasted no different from all the other fruits of the garden, but it had a strange effect on his mind and vision.

Suddenly, the light that had gently and peacefully enveloped them became bright and almost blinding. The chirping of birds and crickets that would lull him to sleep on many lazy afternoons sounded distorted and on edge. Everything that used to be in harmony was out of sync. In his confusion, he looked onto Eve, his other half, but she was not herself but beside herself.

For the first time, he noted her body was shaped like a fruit. She was not after all made in his likeness, but he liked what he saw and was also afraid of the communication of his eyes. This image of her was beyond beauty was beyond anything any man had ever seen before and these sensations flowed through his body like waves of anger, passion and shame. As she noticed his strange appetizing and hungry gaze, she quickly covered herself with a fig leaf, and so did he.

And yet, moments later he wished to uncover himself. Except things would never be the same again. The act was done, and it was irreversible. For the first time in his long life, he felt regret, but joy and anticipation also flooded every nerve of his body. He started naming all the surfacing emotions one by one not unlike the way he had given names to each and every creature that crawled and walked on the ground. And yet, no more were they docile and servient creatures, but they began to eye him with suspicion and mistrust.

And then he had her, his very own forbidden fruit. It came at a cost: eternal and irrevocable expulsion from the lands of Eden. But this did not bother them. He wanted to be with her, and she with him, and it did not matter where, provided they were there together. Although the Father called it a curse, they secretly named it a blessing.

They were free to roam in a way they had never been free to roam before. They began to toil and harvest the land they were given. It was meant as punishment, but they both considered it to be the most beautiful place they had ever set eyes on. As he stood in the fields, laboring daily, he felt the scorching sun on his sweaty brow, and it felt good. He stood there upright, wiped his brow and felt pride in their accomplishments. There it was their very own orchard filled with fruits of various kinds.

But the most surprising fruit was the one that gradually grew within her womb. And before they knew it, there was a creature not unlike them but much smaller and much more tender than anyone could imagine. They took care of him as he grew up on fruits, berries and soft words, and soon enough and much too soon their offspring was carelessly and joyfully playing in the fields as if it was the garden Eden herself!

Another creature arrived via the same aqueduct and with each day, as their happiness grew, so did those beloved creatures. It was not always peace and calm, and they ended up having more and more fights, spouse with spouse, parents with children, and children with children. They became the first and foremost dysfunctional family, the blueprint of all families to emerge. Yet they also had love, an abundance of it. He never strayed from their side until his final day.

On that late evening, he lay in a bed of tall grass and flowers on a hilltop bathed in the slowly setting sun. His wife was sitting beside this aged man, the dreamer with his wildly flowing white mane. With eyes closed, he imagined all the fruits of their labor, the trees, the plants, the flowers growing and evolving and continuing to grow and evolve for time immemorial. The birds fluttered around him and sang their hymns and odes to beauty.  A shroud of calm and bliss descended upon him. And he smiled. It was good.