And now?

Another way of asking would be: So what?

As I read it, the story is telling us most definitely that we do in fact have Free Will, that is the ability to choose, to defy, to say no, regardless of the consequences. When you consider how Adam & Eve were before they ate the fruit with how they are afterwards, there is a difference like night and day. Instead of the obliviously innocent, blithely ignorant creatures who passed their time in the Garden, we now have two mature human beings who have to go out and face the world ... just as the rest of us do every day ourselves. To my mind, their act of "defiance" was their initiation into humanity. It's who we are, and sometimes who we need to be. We are sometimes simply required to choose.

Life requires choices. Sometimes the consequences are unpleasant, sometimes dire, sometimes more wonderful than we can imagine, but we don't know unless we find the courage to choose. There are more than enough individuals in this world who are more than willing to let you know that it is anything but worthwhile to make your own decisions. Those are the petty tyrants, the wannabe authorities, the annoying instances of power who think they are masters of all they see. Well, they are ... if we allow them to be. It is well worth remembering that no other human being has real power over you unless you give that person the power.

If their threats are more than you are willing to endure, they have power. If you don't accept that, you are nevertheless free. If you are willing to give up your freedom because you fear the consequences, then you have to ask yourself whether the life you have chosen is really worth living. The moral of the story we have been considering is that saying no is not without its consequences, to be sure, but how much are you willing to sacrifice to be free?

Oh yes, the all the platitudes in this case are oddly enough true. There is no freedom without sacrifice, but the real question is what are you willing to wager in exchange? It's a tough question that demands a tough answer. When I look around, I can't say that I'm encouraged that there are very many who are really willing to make much of a sacrifice at all. You have to ask yourself nevertheless: what is freedom worth to you?