Losing Eden

Psychology is limited in that it goes only as far back as childhood to understand human nature. Philosophy on the other hand can go back to the beginning of time to derive meaning.

Take for example the pain of separation. In psychology they call this an 'abandonment issue', arising from the unhealthy ways a child relates to the absence of its parents.

Being the good philosopher that I am, I think this originates from the time we were separated from Eden.

The pain we feel at every loss is the pain that is stitched deep into our DNA, of knowing perfection, beauty, love and innocence, and then destroying it all in one fell swoop.

Here is a poem by David Ferry, as they prepare to leave Eden:


You lie in our bed as if an orchard were over us.

You are what’s fallen from those fatal boughs.

Where will we go when they send us away from here?

From the poem - In Eden - By David Ferry

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