Introduction:
When I read Atlas Shrugged in September of 1966, I was 19. This sentence stayed with me:
“To hold an unchanging youth is to reach at the end, the vision with which one started.”
I was always interested in how things came to be. My children’s picture bible started with God and the seven days of Creation. There was a man in the clouds. I asked my mother, “Is that God?”
“No, it’s a picture.”
“But is that what God looks like?”
“No.”
“But how do you know it’s God.”
“Because that’s what the story says.”
“But how do you know He’s real.”
“…you can read about God in big books.”
The story of Adam and Eve made me scared of snakes, but my takeaway was that apples made people smart. Wow!
My mother read to me a lot, and I loved that. When I was four, learning to read became my highest desire. I thought reading was the key into this mysterious grownup world. Reading would help me understand.
When I read Atlas in 1966, the world was new again.
I didn’t find all the answers, but I did find something far more important — I found myself and in celebration, I wrote this poem.
Adam’s Song
Temptation’s taste lies guiltless on my tongue
For those who would love liberty to kiss.
While snickering the Serpent slyly sung
A tune to render Eden much amiss.
By giving Man the burden to know pain,
And death and war and holocaust and age,
The Serpent sought to teach Man to complain,
And turn to humble fool who now is sage.
But only open eyes can clearly see
The wondrous beauty that is naked Eve,
Thus little patience have I with decree
That happiness is not mine to achieve.
For apples, I have paid no higher stake,
Than to live and learn and love for my own sake.
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