Thursday, October 26, 2017

forbidden fruit

This Napa Valley is wonderfully fertile and interesting to a born and bred city girl. Eating a fig picked right from a tree is a life changing experience.  Of course there are grape vines bearing small special clusters that will eventually show up in your wineglass. Lemon trees bear heavy golden lemons, huge when compared with those small yellow bullets at the store. And olive trees everywhere! Little pellets hanging on soft green trees. Most amazing of all are the pomegranates weighing down branches. Big and small, some brown, some turning ruby red. I bought a huge heavy pom at Safeway.

The Armenian writer William Saroyan writes that in the early part of the twentieth century his old world grandfather planted pomegranate trees. No one in the Central Valley knew what they were and after many years he was able to ship some cases back east where they did not do well. How proud Grandfather Saroyan would be to see his dream of pomegranates made real. As the commercial says, powerful pomegranates.

Today as I was separating seeds from membrane and peel I started wondering just why God told Adam and Eve not to eat of that particular fruit. Surely he had created pears and plums and cashew nuts for their pleasure, why not that fruit? Something most biblical scholars don't talk about is God's reasons behind decisions. Why mosquitoes? Why prohibit pomegranates?

According to written accounts, God was very busy. A whole planet, a whole universe to create in just a week. The children didn't know anything and took a lot of His time. They were created as adults, but emotionally and intellectually they were about five years old. Their constantly asking why was getting on the Creator's nerves, and like most parents stopped giving proper answers and resorted to the tried and true, "Because I said so! Now go play and let me get some work done." This turned out to be a rather bad decision, considering who they met. Back in those days serpents, snakes, and all manor of creature spoke English, of course. This day a mischievous and bored serpent decided to have some fun. Hey guys, come eat some of this crazy fruit.  Lets see who can spit the farthest. Oh no, we can't, Father said don't eat that one. The snake didn't want a banana or melon, no grapes would satisfy, he wanted pomegranate, not because he'd ever had one, but just because the kids were so uptight over it. Finally, as bullies often do, he wore them down and they ate the seeds.

Later, after seeing that the dinosaurs were nicely turning into petroleum, He decided to check in on those crazy kids. Adam, Eve, He called and noticed the pair were sticky with red juice and Eve was trying to dig a seed out of her gums. In a mock stern voice He asked if they had been eating watermelon, or beets, or tomatoes? No father, they answered each time, looking as innocent as the day they were made. Well the only other thing that would make such a mess is pomegranate and I know you didn't eat that. Suddenly Adam looked at Eve and she burst into tears. Eve, He asked, have you been eating fruit that I forbid you to eat? No, she lied through her tears. Well Adam, He went on, how did it taste? Too many seeds admitted the addle pated male ancestor of us all. That was the final straw. How many times had He told them not to eat it? And lying about it? He'd had it, Out He ordered. No more Eden for you! If you can't follow the rules, you can't live here. Out, out, before I give you something to cry about. Weeping, His foolish creation stumbled away.

Later, the Creator looked about and noticed His simple children were nowhere to be found. He remembered He'd been frustrated and never told them why they shouldn't eat that fruit. He wasn't done. Too many seeds, not enough juice and it was a pain to open and eat. It still needed work.
Given His workload, it was quite a while before He looked for them again and by then they'd forgotten the garden and their father and he forgot about fixing the pomegranates. Oh well, He thought, how bad could they be? He'd give them a few more centuries to think about not obeying His word, and then they could come back. Satisfied, he put his thought into creating Black Holes. Such fun.

No comments:

Post a Comment