Cliff Notes

Alright … here are some cliff notes to my short story. You may ask yourself, "Is there symbolism?" Holy crap that is all there is!

There is only one sage. The garden is life. The trees are days in the life of the sage throughout his incarnations.

Each time thru the garden he becomes wiser and less naive and innocent. He reaches the great tree of recognition faster each time thru the garden during each successive incarnation.

The heart of the garden is the entrapment of life. “Where you will find everyone else.” The sage has already been there. He attains sage status by giving up the desire to continue living in the interior of the garden and venturing elsewhere for enlightenment.

The children at the apple tree are growing up similar to the sage until he is no longer welcome in the garden as the snake.

He attains enlightenment and exits the garden never to return, breaking the cycle of life.

There is a lot more, but that is the general gist of things.

A lot of Buddhist thinking is involved. I tried to meld it with the Judeo-Christian story of Adam and Eve - the two children who eventually grow up always craving the fruit of knowledge that they will eventually reach on their own even without the assistance of the snake.

I was thinking of maybe concluding the story in a different light. Also, I want to include many more aspects of his past lives that pop up for reflection. I am sure I will further develop parts of the story that I am not satisfied with if I see it as a worthwhile endeavor to pursue. I don’t know … the story did not turn out quite as I imagined it when I first started. I will not say I am thoroughly dissatisfied with my creation, but I am dissatisfied nonetheless.