trees and fruits

thoughts

A friend of my wife said she would make the same decision Eve made in the garden, that she would need to know all that she could.  She would definitely have eaten from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.  It has set me thinking.  On some level, do we see that the knowledge acquired from that tree as a good thing?  It is almost like we still revere the thing that brought us out of God's grace.  I think that we somehow place reasoning and knowledge of good and evil as the same thing.  I struggle with the idea of what the tree truly represents.  The knowledge of good and evil can be distilled down to the tenet of choice.  So did we have choice before we partook of the fruit?  I think we did.  Adam and Eve had a choice of taking it or not taking it (the fruit).  So if we had choice before, then what does the tree symbolize?  I am still thinking on this, but so far, I am leaning to this answer:  the tree of the knowledge of good and evil is a choice of reasoning based on our own intellect and experiences alone.  It is us making our decisions based on our own human understanding.  It is devoid of divine influence.  If we are God-breathed, it implies then that we are more than just reasoning or thinking animals.  There is something in us that sets us above the mere created creatures.  It is the ability to hear God's voice, however you choose to understand that.  When Adam and Eve made that decision, they consciously decided not to listen to their Creator and leaned on their own understanding.  Today I think this is still our trouble.  We fall back onto the thinking learned from the tree of good and evil.  So how can we get away from this predicament?  I found in the last few months that it starts with realizing that God is speaking, but we must choose to hear.  How we hear His voice depends on who we are and how He made us.  Some of us hear that still, small voice.  Others see Him in our children and in His creation.  However you hear the voice, will you listen?  Or will you rely solely on the knowledge gained from the tree in the garden? 

ponderings

Toilet seats.  I watched a movie where this woman was arguing with her husband about lifting the toilet seat.  She was peeved because he left the toilet seat up.  Here is my spiel on this:  if men and women are created equally and have the same value, why the fuss about the toilet seat?  She can put it down just as easily as he can pick it up.  Are women of the world going to the bathroom don't look and step back blindly toward the seat, saying that it had better be down, or there will be hell to pay!?  Have marital relationships come down to a power play over something as silly as lifting or lowering a seat?  Maybe I am a Neanderthal man, but I just don't get it.  Putting on my strategic hat, is the position of the toilet seat a communication for love and respect from one spouse to another?  From an IFS perspective, is the firefighter crying out for love through the placement of the toilet seat?  From the multi-gen angle, what kind of differentiation do we need from the toilet seat?  What latent anxiety is there?  What have we learned from our family of origin?  From collaborative languages, can't we all get along?  You're ok, I'm ok, the toilet seat is ok.  From a structural bias, how does the placement of the toilet seat affect the alignment and hierarchy of the male/female dynamic?  What subordinate stories are being subjugated by the dominant themes that involve the placement of the toilet seat, narratively speaking?  But at last, maybe CBT has the answer.  What cognitive distortions have lead us to this place where marital happiness hinges on the toilet seat (pun intended)?  If you have any ideas on this matter, please let me know.  I am as curious as the next person.