Things Fall Apart
Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall.
Humpty Dumpty had a great fall . . .
The Fall
Think about it: as myth or as fact, the Jews did a bloody good job of summarizing the human condition. There are four great splits that exist in this world, all of which can be traced back to that story.
Man lives in paradise. God shows up daily for tea and brisk walks. The weather is nice. The animals don’t shit on the lawn. There are no arguments about getting lost and not asking for direction, because where are you going to go? You’re in paradise. All signs point to imperfection, and who wants to go out there?
The tree, the serpent, the temptation, the stupidity: the result is sudden.
Man knows he is naked, signaling a change in relationship with himself.
Man knows that he doesn’t want another seeing his nakedness, signaling a change in community and human relationships.
Man knows that he hears God on the outside of his head for the first time, signaling a change in relationship with the Divine.
And then God curses everyone and everything, heightening the estrangement from self, other, and God, and adding a separation from the rest of creation as well: man will forever think he is so much better than the ground from which he was taken.
What else is there in the world? What other problems do we see which are not based on this system of brokenness?
And isn’t that the nature of redemption, esp. the kind spoken off in the Jewish Oral tradition as well as the New Testament of the Christian Bible (less we forget its writers were good Jews) , a redemption of ALL CREATION. A process of healing the rift which was formed so long ago.
And the rest, all of this in the mean time, is a rehearsal, trying to put Humpty back together again on our own.
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