There's That Damn Tree

Recently I finished reading East of Eden by Steinbeck again.

It's good to read it every five or ten years to gain a new perspective.

Of course, the two words that hammer it home time and again are still there:

Thou Mayest.

It's the Steinbeck equivalent of 'It's no sin to be glad you're alive.'

Thou Mayest live a wonderful life.

Thou Mayest find love.

Thou Mayest share that love without regard to selfishness.

Yet what also is continually hammered home is the idea that there is a delicate balance between good and evil.

We all know this one.

We all carry the seeds of our own destruction.

The things that tear us down are the same things that make us feel so alive.

Think drinking, or sex-addiction, or drugs, or gambling, or being reckless, or being petty or mean.

We all know the great sins.

We all work to avoid them.

But the original sin was that the seeds of destruction could not be ignored all those years ago in the Garden of Eden as the story goes.

And that story is still true.

Have you ever screwed something up so badly and then thought:

"And everything was going so great!"

"Why did I do that?"

We all have.

And while reading the book I was wondering why.

Do you think Adam and Eve were strolling around the Garden thinking:

"Wow isn't this beautiful? How can we mess this up?"

I mean, how many times can you walk past the forbidden fruit before you think:

"I'm a little bored here. I'm gonna' try a piece."

And therein lies the trick of living right, I guess.

Rising above those dark moments inside our own hearts and minds.

Avoiding the self-destruction.

Thou Mayest...

...Live the life you wanna live.