Fall (Autumn), “The Fall” & “My Fall”

Fall is in the air.  I can smell it coming and see it in the way the grass and flowers are beginning  to fade and as some yellow leaves fall from the trees.  The bees still hover over the dahlia and hosta blooms and butterflies still flit through the air.  The hummingbird still comes to the feeder, but I can sense Fall (Autumn) is on its way. Then comes winter, then spring and summer once again and the story goes on.

According to the Bible the first “Fall” was a real disaster. The story of that Fall is told in the book of Genesis.  Adam and Eve, urged on by the serpent, ate the fruit in the center of the garden of Eden and became “as gods, knowing absolutely what is good and what is evil.” According to the story, this first Fall brought enmity among human kind, made work a curse, and the world became a broken place. Eve blames the serpent, Adam blames Eve, and all blame God! And Cain kills Abel. The epitome of sin is separation from God, from our neighbors, and from ourselves.   The story of this first Fall (fact, fiction, or myth) continues,  we are still terribly divided and our world is still terribly broken.  Many “Falls’ have happened in our history since that first one, but it doesn’t have to be the end of our story.

“My Fall” occurred twenty-three years ago today and not a single Labor Day has gone by since that I do not think about it.  It was quite traumatic.  I fell about thirty-five feet—from the dormer roof of an old Victorian three-story house, then bounced off the porch roof, and then to the ground.  I have no serpent to blame, nor can I blame my fall on the rope which was supposed to hold the ladder in place. It happened—I fell! The helicopter ride to Shock Trauma—the surgery that followed my arrival—have grown dim with the passage of time.  I live with titanium strips in my right cheek and a plastic eye socket.  I can predict with some accuracy the coming of rain or snow with my inner facial hardware.  My journey, fortunately, continues on.

Fall comes every year, followed by winter, then by spring and summer.  “The Fall” of biblical story is not the end of the story.  “My Fall” was not the end of my story.