NOTE: This article is the starting place for a larger investigation I hope to complete in time. It simply frames the question—which, in light of all the confusion on this topic, seemed worthy of posting, even before the various hypotheses are fleshed out and examined. You will see that I have laid the groundwork for those hypotheses simply by listing the various ways in which Genesis 2:17 might be questioned, challenged, or reconsidered.
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Somewhere
Eventually lead
To think this could
But I’m really starting
Stacking it all first to last
Surely some see no sense in
Perhaps today is the day
When some soul on this Earth
Decides he wants to know—
And not just about a thing,
But about it all.
It took me a while to figure out how it goes,
But I can see now that he simply
Doesn’t want the facts except when they
Support the feelings he’s already cultivating.
Too few have the elusive spark that drives them
Beyond the necessary to the meaningful—
From the sanctuary of self to the garden of others.
How sweet it is, then, that such gardeners might perchance
Find one another along the way and take heart
In a camaraderie unknown to others.
Someday, after we have cleaned the garage
And fixed the old lawnmower—
After we’ve taken the kids to the Grand Canyon
And fixed up the old family photo album—
When things settle down after that
And we’ve caught up on the knitting
And finish entering our recipes into the book—
In our culture, overcoming a problem
Is a great accomplishment and is worth
One hundred awesome points.
And blaming someone else for it
Is worth a thousand.
The fool will laugh and scoff
And think you an idiot when he
Sees you being careful to vet
The thing he believed on a whim,
Simply because he heard it.
But let the thing be something
False about him and see if he does not
Demand on that particular occasion
The most stringent vetting available.
Such are those who will adopt
A lifetime of scoffing without first
Looking to see how it turns out
For scoffers in the end.
Man with the Cat. See credit.
One could tell that the man was intrigued
At having the truth in the room from time to time,
But he never warmed up to the idea of
Having it move in, and would often
Put it out with the cat.
Nothing is intended with regard to the identity of the man in the portrait.
