Funny thing about The Bible…

So many translations.

King James, New American, the list goes on.

Pretty crazy for the foundational piece of western literature.

In Genesis alone, the stories include Creation, Eden, Cain & Abel, Babylon, The Flood…

These are meta-stories. Far too often saturated into children’s tales.

In reality, their meanings are deeper than the words themselves. We know this intuitively, though its often hard to articulate.

That said, the words do matter.

John Steinbeck does a good job with words.

In his sprawling masterpiece “East of Eden” - he hones in on their importance - particularly in the story of Cain & Abel.

The book deftly embodies and analyzes the story of hostile brothers in ways few other pieces of literature have.

Well, I just finished Netflix’s adaption of the book.

It’s easy to binge shows while you’re on paternity leave - particularly the trashy ones - but I gotta hand it to Netflix this time. They did an incredible job. (So did Florence Pugh).

It’s rare to find storytelling of this level on streaming services anymore. I’ve used this platform to lament at length over the tsunami of mindless, algo-driven “slop” (as the kids say) churned out daily.

But this show is the antidote.

And it also proves that, as Steinbeck implies, we all have a choice. We have agency. We control our destiny.

We choose what to create. What to consume. What to value.

We have free will: a uniquely human gift.

RP WEEKLY!!!!!!