Searching for One Body

It is not good to be alone.  So God first sent the animals to see what man would call them.  He named each one but no name came close to filling the emptiness.  Where is the companion of these days and nights?  Aloneness engulfed him.  He slept.  Now God took action and entered the sleeping body with surgical ease to extract a rib close to the heart.  From the bone God fashioned a life.  This creature will dream with you.  You will venture into the aloneness together.  Love, struggle, care, and more arise from this shared life.  Hold tight.  Now you are one.

No way I’m Adam’s rib.  No way.  This self of mine is just as real.  “Women,” said the philosopher, “have always been the second sex.  Independence lies in the future once these myths and cursed history are left behind.”

What will it be, God?  If we ponder your words where do they lead?  Are you the God who leaves things just the way they are?  Or are you up ahead calling us to an amazing life?  Where is one body to be found?

The woman knew she didn’t belong.  She crept forward like the animal they saw in her.  His words were rough: men eat first.  Women wait.  Especially women from a tribe of strangers.  Her daughter’s pain gave her courage to speak.  She would not move, so he listened.