Meditation, prologue:
Could counting be a form of “original sin”?

Scripture, edited:
Genesis 2:8: Now the Lord God had planted a garden in the east, in Eden; and there he put the man he had formed. 9 The Lord God made all kinds of trees grow out of the ground—trees that were pleasing to the eye and good for food. In the middle of the garden were the tree of life and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.

Gen 2:16: And the Lord God commanded the man, “You are free to eat from any tree in the garden; 17 but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat from it you will certainly die.”

Gen 2:25: Adam and his wife were both naked, and they felt no shame.

These People only knew what ENOUGH meant.

What happens in a place where there is nature and no shelter, during weather? What do creatures do? They huddle or congregate. They turn backs to the storm. They weather with no fear of exposure. They are naked, and feel no shame.

What would Adam and Eve do during a storm, if they only knew ENOUGH? They might huddle, hug, maybe under the shelter of a garden tree, shoulder to shoulder, sternum to sternum, dual backs exposed to the storm. ENOUGH.

Gen 3:5: “For God knows that when you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”

Gen 3:7: Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they realized they were naked; so they sewed fig leaves together and made coverings for themselves.

These people learned the concept of MORE. They learned to think about number, extra, addition. Artists make nudity about the smallest of our parts puts the leaves in strategic places, like a moulin rouges or bachelorette party. But maybe this is wrong.

If we were in a garden, naked, and woke up during weather, we would cover our backs with leaves. We would make a coat, not a thong, not a g-string. That would make better sense in a garden, when MORE was known to be better than ENOUGH. So imagine that they crafted more cover than they could be for each other, crude clothing over their backs.

This breaks a fundamental obedience to our relationship with God’s ENOUGH in the garden.

Gen 3:8-11: 8 Then the man and his wife heard the sound of the Lord God as he was walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and they hid from the Lord God among the trees of the garden. 9 But the Lord God called to the man, “Where are you?” 10 He answered, “I heard you in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked; so I hid.” 11 And he said, “Who told you that you were naked?”

Who judged these People? They judged themselves, and maybe recognized God’s loving heart broken. Maybe God recognized the truth of their guilt.

… then People are “cast out”. But might a gentler God taken action, simply opening the garden gates? …

So God may have said, “Now that you know how to seek MORE, and that you cannot be satisfied with ENOUGH, you must leave the garden of ENOUGH.”

We must go seek more, learn to count. We are cursed to know when my MORE is less than yours. We learn to compete for MORE, and discount games where each wins ENOUGH through cooperation. We create measures, by which MORE can be defined.

We populate. MORE of us is better. We consume for the sake of consuming. MORE consumption is wealthy.

When we argue, we keep score. MORE winning arguments is survival; long standing losing games can be remembered. Scores can kept and made sacred, and avenged in future victories. We imagine we could be at peace if the new scores were ENOUGH, but they never are.

Is counting a tool of greed? A tool to trap us in the very real pain that is our condition? A tool to divide winners and losers?

Why do we count and score?

End prologue….