In which she gives Eve a break.

But the Lord God warned him, "You may  freely eat of every tree in the garden - except the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. If you eat its fruit, you are sure to die."

Genesis 2: 16 & 17
The New Living Bible.

I've been listening to Triple J for a couple of years now. I like that I am hearing different artists than the usual Beyonce, Brittney and Bieber offerings of other radio stations. A few months back I heard Hilltop Hoods, Cosby Sweater and liked it from the start. I liked it because...well...I don't know why. It was different to what I normally like, it was catchy...and I liked it. I didn't even know the lyrics apart from most of the chorus. This is most unlike me. I like knowing lyrics. Always have. In any case, I enjoyed Cosby Sweater every time it came on.

Recently one of my friends posted about Cosby Sweater on Facebook, saying how much of a good song it was until she discovered what it meant.

I tried to resist folks! I wanted to keep singing along to that song and believing that it was simply referring to the sweaters the Huxtable family would wear on The Cosby Show.

But there it was - that tree of the knowledge of good and evil, in the form of Google.

And I couldn't resist...and now I know what kind of Cosby Sweater the songwriters are referring to...one that I never knew existed until half an hour ago.

*blinks*

Ignorance actually is bliss sometimes, and I find myself wondering if all we do is lose our innocence in the relentless pursuit to know things. Once you know the truth about something then you're no longer innocent...and then...guilt comes in simply because you think, "I shouldn't like this." Well....that's what it's like for me.

(I think I'm working out the Genesis stuff as I ponder this.)

I remember as a child singing the original words to Eenie Meenie Minee Mo, Rock-a-bye Baby and Ring-a-Rosie with reckless abandon. Choosing who was "It" in Tiggy or captain of a team was always decided by the Eenie Meenie Minee Mo method, and back then we didn't sing about a Tiger being caught by his toe...it was something else. None of us had any idea that we were singing about something from the days of slavery, nor did we know that we were singing a song about the Black Plague when we sang Ring-a-Rosie.  It was all innocence.

In the 1980's I heard Led Zepplins Stairway to Heaven played backwards and heard the infamous line about "My sweet Satan". I still can't hear that song without thinking about it and feeling terribly guilty and sinful if I listen to it. (Although I have been known to bellow along to it out of defiance from time to time!)

Going to hell in a hand basket...

And yet we relentlessly pursue knowledge. We just have to know what's behind the curtain, what it looks like,  sounds like, feels like, tastes like. What is there that lies beyond ignorance and innocence? Maybe it's ok not to know. Maybe it's ok to remain blissfully innocent and ignorant of things we don't really need to know about.

At our place we give up this exasperated cry from time to time;

"For goodness sake, Eve! You had ONE JOB!!!"

We shake our fists at the woman who legend says, took the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil even though she was told she shouldn't.  She took it and ate it simply because she just had to know what it tasted like.

I think we can all agree that we would've ended up doing the same.

Sorry Bill...I don't think I can look at your sweaters anymore...