The Cursed Woman?

One piece of Bible that folks love to throw around is the fact that Eve ate the forbidden fruit and so now she's cursed.

But I'd like to humbly challenge this view.

But first, a story.

Long ago, Dasi had this wallet that she really loved. Her parents bought it for her before she really had anything to put in it. It was quite colorful and so, Dasi could always spot where it was.

As Dasi grew up, she began to acquire money. Also, she gained responsibilities: her own car keys, longer curfew, a job with her own closet to put her stuff in -in fact the amount of keys she had grew in proportion the the amount of responsibilities she had.

She would put her keys in the rings of the wallet, but eventually, they always cut the wallet, or worse her money! Finally, she realized, things are different. She now needed a new wallet. One without so much color so as to attract people to it -because she wanted to conceal her money; and one from better material that the keys won't cut into it. So, she brought a new black leather wallet.

The problem with the Tree of the knowledge of Good and Evil, wasn't that there was evil, but that there was a mixture of both good and evil! If it was pure good, Eve probably wouldn't be effected because I"m assuming she was already "good" the way God made her. And, if the tree was to give pure evil, that too would have been complete. She would be completely evil and probably be destroyed and that would be that.

But since the tree was to give a mixture, this created doubt and confusion in a person. Something we think for sure is right, turns out to be wrong in the eyes of others; or vice versa.

And so, the story goes, she was punished.

In the Dasi story, one can view the whole story from the creation of the colorful wallet. It was perfect and beautiful and fulfilled its function at the time. But when things changed, i.e. Dasi grew up, got more responsibilities and needed a 'better' wallet, one could view it as the wallet being "incompetent". And for this, its punishment was that it should be trashed and a new wallet enter the scene.

Or, we can see this: Because of the new function the wallet had to do ( contain both good and evil) it needed a new form. So, out with the old and in with the new. The new black leather wallet was only the new vessel that was needed, not that the old had any blemish and had to be "punished."

In the same token, when Eve ate of the forbidden fruit and had good and evil inside of her, it was not a "punishment" that she was made to have menses. It was rather, a needed change, a new vessel that was needed, so as to contain and deal with the good and the evil. And, I dare say, she was now ready to face the world and not remain in the Garden of Eden (home).