CSI Eden: Cain&Abel
Crime Scene Investigation Notes
Deceased: Abel Adam
? Wounds consistent with signs of struggle
Blood spatter apparent
Weapon: Rock
No human witnesses—sheep(maybe); God
Suspects: Eve, Adam, Cain (wow, 3 suspects on the entire planet, this should be easy)
Right in the middle of writing this CSI note, I got up from my desk, stood in the middle of my living room and acted out the entire story of Cain and Abel. Crime scene investigators do this sometimes, just so they have a deeper understanding of the crime scene. If my webcam was on, my career might very well be over.
This is how my one-woman play went; I started out acting as Cain (ploughing the ground with an imaginary hoe), then I switched to Abel, who is holding a staff and smiling sheepishly, and befittingly at his sheep.
Next thing, it’s offering time—Cain is running home to watch the next episode of Blacklist and remembers the offering-thing, so he runs past his corn field, grabs three ears of corn without stopping, dumps them outside the tent and does a blacklist marathon.
Abel, has been planning his offering for a while now, he has been feeding a few sheep a little extra to get them fat. He grabs the sheep, leads them home, ties them up to the tent peg and feeds them again.
The bible records that Cain offered his sacrifice first; I offer his first.
One of the most apparent things about this whole affair was how different their sacrifices were. Cain brought crops and Abel brought “fat portions of the first born of his flock”.
During the act of offering, as Cain, I knelt down, bowed my head and offered to God my scrawny corn ears but my offering act was interrupted by thoughts of Blacklist, those screenwriters are crazy, the last episode though — then I spent the remainder of the time staring at Abel’s magnificently dressed offering and comparing it with mine. As long as I stared at this imaginary offering of Abel’s, I got increasingly angered and envious, I may have gone over to it and kicked it over…just a little (I really get into character with these things). Later on, I hit him on the head and hide his body. Then I have nightmares. Loads of them.
Fact: The first murder ever recorded, was caused by comparison.
Compare
\kəm-ˈper\
verb
to look at (two or more things) closely in order to see what is similar or different about them or in order to decide which one is better**
Comparison is never without the elements of superiority and inferiority. The whole point of comparing is to see which is better or to see that they are at least the same and worthy of the same attention.
Comparison works in two ways, we compare, find out that we are doing better than the other person and we get complacent with a smirk on your face, which is a fool’s signature (not my words, Proverbs 1:32).
The other way comparison could work would be by discovering that we aren’t measuring up to this other person and then jealousy steps in, he/she becomes a reference for everything we do. You struggle and imitate so desperately until you lose focus and discover one day that you have lost yourself; your mission, your goals are all muddled up because you left your lane and are now on the sidewalk.
We choose how this ends. Cain didn’t have to kill Abel but he chose to anyway.
Jealousy is a crazy thing. It makes you lose the essence of who you are.
If you have been comparing yourself to someone or comparing your work to someone else’s, let it go. Your offerings are very different, no matter how seemingly similar.
I, later acted out Cain and Abel a different way. This time, Abel didn’t die. Cain faced his sacrifice, apologized to God for the shabby presentation. He appreciated the uniqueness of his offering and asked Abel for tips on better presentation. Abel got to have a wife and family and we kinda had another race of humans from him.
The End
Oh yeah, case closed! Cain did it. Note to self, do not compare all this awesomeness with another person's unique awesomeness. That just isn’t a fair scale.
*wink*
What are your thoughts on CSI: Eden? What do you think is the best way to deal with comparison in our crazy world? Has this helped in any way? Have you read this post yet?
{Author's note: Humans had been kicked out of Eden at this time; it was used in this post because it was the most relevant geographical reference at the time of this event. **Definition from Merriam Webster Dictionary.}
