Tag Archives: knowledge of good and evil

Bumpkin

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Bumpkin: (n) a socially awkward person from the countryside

The premise seems to be that if you can convince yourself that other people are ignorant, then you don’t have to deal with them, love them, respect them or even give them space.

After all, since we’ve decided to suck on the juice from the fruit of the knowledge of good and evil, we have become a prideful race, who contend “the more you know, the smarter you get.”

But a lot of people have accumulated data without ever becoming smart. I believe there are four ways to be smart, which cause you to escape the world of “bumpkin:”

  1. Emotionally smart.

Basically, that’s admitting, “I can’t help anyone else if I’m a freaked-out mess.”

  1. Spiritually smart.

“I was never created to be an angel, so I need enough God in my life to love my neighbor as myself.”

  1. Mentally smart.

I need to take in just enough new information that I can try it out for myself, and therefore confirm–within me–that there’s truth to it.

  1. Body smart.

“I don’t eat too much of anything, exercise enough that I feel refreshed, and sleep every chance I can.”

My finding is that the people who follow these simple “smart values” end up being very universal and valuable to the world around them.

A bumpkin is not a person from a particular location.

A bumpkin is someone who has not yet located how to be a person.

 

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Artifice

Artifice: (n) clever or cunning devices or expedients, especially as used to trick or deceive othersdictionary with letter A

I’ve always been fascinated with the simile, “Sheep in the midst of wolves, wise as serpents, and as harmless as doves.”

Even though this comes from the Good Book, it really promotes an excellent lifestyle choice in what people often believe to be the “big, bad world.”

We spend way too much time bitching about the wolves and complaining about our sheepish profile–which seems to fail to have an ability to sink its teeth into the problem.

I suppose if I believed I was just a sheep surrounded by wolves I would not only be paranoid, but completely exasperated.

But the simile continues.

I am to be “wise as a serpent.”

That means I am supposed to sit down and allow my brain to conjure an idea that will give me an artifice–a means by which I can outsmart my competition. Of course, there is a danger that I could just become part of the problem by being equally as wolf-like as the rest of the carnivores out there, trying to devour humankind.

So the closing part of the simile is very important. Deep in my heart I need to be as harmless as a dove.

In other words, my motivation must be for the betterment of all and not just for the prospering of myself.

I use cleverness and cunning every day of my life. If I were not prepared to come up with inspiration and approaches that are smarter than my adversary, I am ill-prepared to be in the marketplace.

But I must also realize that the fact that I share a message that is geared to sheep does put me at the mercy of critical wolves, and that my ability to spiritually discern real-time situations and come up with intelligent revisions must be tempered by a heart that is harmless and only wants to bring peace.

It is that artifice that makes knowledge work for good… even as it dispels the evil.

 

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Apple

dictionary with letter A

Ap·ple (n): the round fruit of a tree of the rose family, which typically has thin red or green skin and crisp flesh. Many varieties have been developed as dessert or cooking fruit or for making cider.

It’s the power of having a good agent–because certainly the apple needed one.

It began its fruitful journey as the traditional forbidden delicacy eaten by Adam and Eve in the Garden, the symbol of the knowledge of good and evil and certainly the subject of great controversy.

Then over the years, through what could only be considered a miraculous amount of promotion and transformation of public image, it has turned into “Mom and apple pie.”

Try this one on for size:

  • The apple of his eye.
  • An apple a day keeps the doctor away.
  • Apple cider with doughnuts
  • Apple dumpling.
  • Apple face cream.
  • Famous people even name their children “Apple.”
  • When the Beatles were looking for a name for their studio, “banana” was not even considered, but “Apple” was immediately plucked from the tree.
  • And moving with the technology, Apple willingly became a computer.
  • Don’t forget–apples that are green and sour are covered with caramel so they can be part of the carnival.

Somewhere along the line, the apple hired a VERY good agent to escape the scandal perpetrated among the trees in Eden.

Of course, even with the best publicity, you still end up with “rotten to the core.”

 

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