« Steinbeck Makes Us Aware of Our Multi Earth Ways »

Just thinking about his book title, East of Eden, it strikes me that Steinbeck grasped the contrast between the worldview that is Eden and the one that is not. The one that is outside of Eden. Each worldview has stories to tell and Steinbeck took on the task of telling a story of life when we live in the worldview of non-Eden — or, in the parlance of this blog, when we live in the world as Multi Earthers. He recognized that we, like Cain, live in non-Eden. That may not surprise us given that most of have learned the Eden story as something ancient anyway. But this blog takes a different view. On up the road I’ll say how, I believe, we can live in Eden today.

As is true for us all in general, my life lives out of a complex of stories I’ve identified with. Some I’m conscious of, some I’m not. The stories I’m least conscious of likely impact me all the more for my lack of awareness of them. For example, being born in the U.S., I had been shaped by the Multi Earth story for many years before becoming conscious of it. That story continues to shape Multi Earth living so successfully because many Multi Earthers remain unconscious of the plot being played out through their lifestyle choices. But Steinbeck was deeply aware of it and recognized that the story of Cain told briefly the macro-story we are living. His novel expresses the depth of meaning he saw in both the biblical story and the contemporary expression of it in the U.S.

What comments can you add to how John Steinbeck shows Multi Earth ways that ain’t pretty? But also how he pushes and prods the edges of human capacities to believe we could live a completely different, life-giving paradigm?