Fruit

Imagine you're walking around the woods. It's 3,000 BC, and earlier in the day your kid did something he wasn't supposed to do. He left the cave without telling you, even though you had told him over and over not to do that. In order to get your point across, you would've told a story similar to this one, because it's what your dad did for you and what his dad did for him:

Out of all the beasts of the field that the Great Power created, the snake was the most sly. It could slither around secretly without revealing itself, and strike when one least expected it. And here's a story that your great, great, grandfather told about the snake:

'After many years passed and the first man and woman were working in the garden, the snake showed up to the woman and told her, "Has the Great Power told you not to eat from any tree in the garden?" 

And even though the woman hadn't ever talked to the Great Power before, she answered, "We can eat the fruit off of any of the trees in the garden except from the one in the middle. The Great Power told us it was poisonous and we'd die if we ate it or even touched it."

And the snake said to the woman, "Do you really believe that? I bet that man of yours is trying to keep something from you. He doesn't want you to gain more knowledge than himself, so he's come up with a story 'from the Great Power' to keep you away from it. But the truth is, he's been eating off of that tree for days now."

The woman believed the snake. I mean, who wouldn't under the circumstances? When the only person you trust is said to be doing something behind your back, it makes you question things a little bit. So, the woman's truth was tweaked to where the saw the tree in the middle of the garden as a good thing. She saw the fruit as a good thing. She became enamored by this tree and its fruit, and couldn't stop thinking about it. All day and all night for weeks, she couldn't sleep without dreaming about this tree. She wanted the wisdom that came from the fruit of the tree.

Finally, after twisting and turning many sleepless nights and after having an inward battle many days, she secretly took one of the fruits from the tree. Then she ate some of it. Immediately, she felt a feeling she'd never felt before. She felt an emotion stirring up within her, and it had to do with what the snake had told her earlier about the man. "Why would he have kept this secret from me? What's he trying to do?" She decided to never mention her conversation with the snake to the man, and a couple days later took some of the fruit to him. 

As they ate the fruit together, they felt like they're eyes were opening to a realm they never knew existed. Over a few weeks, they started picking up on subtle differences between themselves. Physically, they started noticing flaws in each other. In their conversations, they started trying to prove the other wrong. They started competing against each other in the garden, and measuring each other up. They noticed that their bodies were different from each other, and different had never been a concept in their language up to this point. So, they went out into the garden to find firm plants that would make good coverings for their differences. 

One morning, as they were walking in awkward silence, they heard the Great Power moving through the trees. The man and woman were very uncomfortable, for they had not learned how to deal with the feelings they were having. They didn't want the Great Power to find them at such an uncomfortable and awkward moment of vulnerability, so they ran behind some groves of bushes. 

The Great Power called out from somewhere, "Where are you Adam?"

And the man, with his back against one of the trees, answered, "I heard something moving through the trees while we were walking, and I got scared. We've been having some issues and I didn't feel like I was ready to talk to you. So I ran and hid."

And the Great Power said, "Where'd you get this idea of 'issues?' You didn't eat the fruit from the tree in the middle did you?"

And the man told the Great Power, "Yes and no. I had no choice. The woman that you thought I needed brought me lunch one day just like every other day, and said nothing about where it came from. So, I ate it just like any other day."

The Great Power said to the woman, "Is this true?"

And the woman said, "Yes and no. The snake lied to me, and I ate the fruit from the tree in the middle."

The Great Power couldn't believe it. Everything was going just as planned until the snake screwed it all up. 

So the Great Power said to the snake, "Because you lied to this woman, this man, and me, you will be the most cursed animal that ever lives. You'll be cursed more than the cattle that drudge around in the dust all day, rechewing their own undigested food! You'll be cursed more than any beast of the field! You'll be confined to slithering around on your belly forever, never evolving into a walking being, never evolving into anything. Dust will cover you and remind you of the filth that you've created here in this garden. You and the woman will never get along. You'll and the man will hurt each other time and time again."

And the Great Power told the woman, "For now on, when you have babies, it's gonna be extremely painful. The pain is going to keep you from ever loving your children they way you use to, and you'll focus more on your husband than your kids, even though he's going to try to rule you with an iron fist."

Then he told the man, "You've gone against the directions I gave you and the leanings of your heart. Therefore, I'm cursing the ground that you've been working on. You will work the ground and have a lot of trouble gettting stuff to grow. You'll do this the rest of your life. You'll get more weeds than crops, and will have trouble getting enough food to keep you alive. It'll be nearly impossible to grow the grains you'll use to make bread, and you'll do all these things until you return to the same cursed ground."

After much time had passed, the man called the woman Eve which means mother of all the living. For the first time ever, the man and woman killed for clothing. No longer were the plants and fruits enough, but they wanted and needed more. So they used animal skin to cover their differences.

Then the Great Power told the Great Spirit, "They're trying really hard to become like us, but they have no idea how mortal they are. They're desire for power is sure to grow by leaps and bounds, so we need to protect that tree of life from them. We need to protect the little sacredness there is left in the garden from Adam's hunger for power."

So, the Great Power told Adam he had to leave and he couldn't come back. And at the entrance of the garden, the Great Power placed an impenetrable fortress that kept anyone in the future from accessing the tree of life.