Poem Therapy 12:28 June 1 , 2012: Essays on Adam - Robert Bringhurst

Essays on Adam

There are five possibilities. One: Adam fell.
Two: he was pushed. Three: he jumped. Four:
he only looked over the edge, and one look silenced him.
Five: nothing worth mentioning happened to Adam.

The first, that he fell, is too simple. The fourth,
fear, we have tried and found useless. The fifth,
nothing happened, is dull. The choice is between:
he jumped or was pushed. And the difference between these

is only an issue of whether the demons
work from the inside out or from the outside
in: the one
theological question.
---
I've thought about this poem nonstop since I posted it. I came back and reread it again, and then my response, and realized I'd kept almost all of my thoughts in my head, in the same manner as when you've been having conversations or arguments with someone in your head, so that when you're with them in real time, you can't believe that they don't remember that you told them that story already, or that you've already discussed that, and why must we rehash it for the thousandth time! But you haven't had that conversation with them. You've had that imaginary discussion with you, yourself, alone, with an image of them standing proxy for the real thing.

Tell me you know what I mean, because I'd really hate it if I were the only person on the planet doing this.

Anyway, here's the recap of what I thought I'd said already:

Religions divide more than unite. Take Christianity. Pretty much all believers claim the same god, accept the creation story as fact rather than metaphor, despite Darwin and science, okay? Here's the thing though, even within one religion, there are factions that claim that theirs is the true faith, and all others are damned. For a religion that espouses love and peace, how do you explain the Crusades, the Spanish Inquisition, the whole Protestant - Catholic thing, born agains intolerance of anyone that believe other than their specific way? 

And just forgettaboutit if we're even going to broach the topic of a non Christian religion. 

So, Adam. I know Judaism, Christianity, and Islam share Abraham. As far as I remember from my world religion class, Judaism and Christianity share the original man.

In case you're interested, Judaism claims two first women, Lilith and Eve. Lilith? Lilith literally wanted to be on top, and was some disgusted with Adam and his demands, and with how the cards were stacked against her, so she said see ya later, fellas, turned into a winged snake and flew away. So, God gave Adam Eve, and she was the "good wife" and has been taking the rap for a whole lot of mess she had nothing to do with ever since.

Lilith flies around getting her revenge, so watch it. 

Christians only have the first woman made from Adam's rib, Eve, but she's seen as a troublemaker, responsible for the downfall of man, just because she let the snake trick her into eating the apple from the tree of knowledge.

All of us have our demons. Some, we're born with. Some we acquire as we go about our lives. But, people are generally good, tolerant, gracious, and kind. Give them a system that says this is evil,or that person is evil because of this reason and that reason, and it's a different story altogether.

So, here I am, back to my original conclusion:

We all live under one sky. We breathe the same air.

We love.

Does anything else really matter?