We Still Live in Eden

What if Adam and Eve had had a loving mother and a happy home?

Once Upon a Time, Father Sky and Mother Earth got married. They acquired some property, enough for themselves and many, many generations of their offspring, and spent quite a few years developing it into the most beautiful, hospitable land they could imagine (and they had excellent imaginations). They called the place Eden.

Sky and Earth had many, many children. They had mountain children and river children, plant children and tree children, insect children, reptile children, bird children and mammal children. Eventually they had human children, a son named Adam and a daughter named Eve. (Both children were made of clay and stardust, and no one lost a rib. Sky and Earth were deities, not mad scientists, and they knew the best way to make children.) Adam and Eve had blissful childhoods in Eden. Their parents made sure they had plenty of delicious food and a safe, beautiful, loving home in which to grow up.

In good time, Adam and Eve became teenagers. As adolescents, they started hanging out with questionable friends, doing weird stuff, setting leaves on fire and breathing in the smoke and giggling about how weird it made them feel, eating too many apples and getting a stomachache. Their parents had warned them, but they did it anyway. Some things you have to learn for yourself. In other words, they grew up. Sky and Earth were excellent parents. They didn’t disown their children, or disinherit them for growing up—which, after all, was their job. When the kids announced they were leaving home, the parents stood at the gate and waved them off on their journeys to explore the farther, wilder reaches of Eden.

Ever since, Adam and Eve have been making their own mistakes and, sometimes, learning from them. They’ve had children and grandchildren and great-great-grandchildren of their own. But “leaving home” was more a state of mind than a physical act. They still live every day of their lives on Earth, in Eden. They still breathe Sky with every breath. They are still made of clay and stardust. Their parents love them very much, and do everything they can to help them out.

Like all kids, Adam and Eve sometimes take their parents for granted, and sometimes, I’m sorry to say, they treat them quite badly. But with any luck, one of these days, they’ll mature. They’ll stop rebelling against their parents, and learn to love and care for them, as their parents have loved and cared for all of their children all along.