The Fall

            Once Adam left the Garden of Eden, it was done. There was no turning back. He was in awe with the realization that the entire universe had been changed for all time. The change would go on not for generations, but forever.

And, God speaks to me:

          “Everything you do is done. You are not able to unbreak eggs. When you break eggs, I do not unbreak them. If you choose to break them, that is your choice. Those eggs will also remain forever broken. They will not result in birds singing in the tree. Ever.

          But, I do continue to create eggs.

            The story is present in some form in all religions. All cultures have stories of those who trade what they were for what they can be. That change that affects all people from that time on. Forever!

            In the story of Oden, he traded an eye for knowledge and wisdom. Once it was done, it was done.

            In the Gilgamish story of Enkidu, he traded his strength, wildness, and innocence for understanding and knowledge. Once it was done, it was done.

            In the Bible story of Adam and Eve, they traded their innocence for knowledge. In Biblical Hebrew, the combination of good and evil are used to indicate the extremes. If you know everything from good to evil, then you know all that is between, all knowledge!

            Notice that the word knowledge is in all of these stories.

            The lesson here is not the lesson of sin as sin, but of action as action. What you do is forever. The lesson is that the action that Adam thought was really not that important, had results for all people for ever. So too do all your actions have results that affect all people for all time.

            Even - - - no! Especially! Especially if it will affect no one else. After all, when Adam committed his act, there was no one else to harm. Eve had already done it. So how could Adam affect anyone else? There was no one else.

            So if it will affect no one else, - then, - perhaps, - the act is not different from that which directly affects another. This is one of the lessons in the story of the Garden of Eden. The story should not be taken as an historical event, but as a lesson for your life, for your actions, for your behavior.

            Do you have a private behavior that affects no one else?

            Your sin harms you, and you become less than what you were. You become farther from God. You become weaker. You become more likely to commit that action that does result in a direct harm to another. You have created an evil that lives throughout all time, throughout all the universe because it is within your soul.

            But, all coins have two sides. Is it possible to do a good without affecting anyone or anything else? If you cannot do a good without affecting anything else, then how can you commit an evil that harms not? The responsibility lies within you to do that good. Do that good and avoid that evil. Remember it does affect the rest of the universe.

            Can you undo the damage of your sin? Can you make up for the wrong you do? There is an old story about the woman who was guilty of gossip. When she confessed her sin, she was told that for her penance she should take a feather pillow up on the top of a hill on a windy day. Rip it open, throw the feathers to the wind and watch them blow all over the world. This represents what happens when you talk about others. Then come back and tell about it.

            When the woman told about the feathers blowing all over, she was told to go out and gather those feathers. Get them all and put them back into the pillow.

            That is how easy it is to undo the wrongs you may do to others. Those feathers represent your actions, represent the results of your actions. It is up to you to make those feathers into good. Spread your good all over the world.

Go up on that windy hill with feathers of good.

Watch them blow all over the world.

No one will suggest that you must gather up the feathers of good.