All About Eve

Ethan missed the philosophical discussions with the monks and priests in his order. Questions that have remained unanswered through the years were more rewarding to ponder with others knowledgeable of Plato and Socrates. In those days, the questions were rhetorical whereas now some held personal meaning. Brit peeked up at him and picked at her meal. He knew that she was not hungry due to his blood in her body, but he was unwilling to let her fall into habit that could create problems over time. Motioning for her to eat, he enjoyed his internal musing while looking at her.

Reflecting on the definition of the term, he smiled knowing that Brit personified innocence. When they had met, he was concerned that he might corrupt her by his very nature. He picked up a raw, baby carrot and traced her lips before feeding it to her, and was rewarded by the slight blush of her cheeks that often came when she giggled. Ethan delighted in his wife’s innocence. She continued to be unacquainted with evil, and possessed no guilt or sin. Even though her mind was clearer by the attributes his vitae yielded, she lacked guile or cunning. Though he was showing her more of the world, he filtered what she saw and his eyes flashed crimson at the thought of those who tried to rob Brit’s innocence through their well-meaning, but untimely, teaching to bring her knowledge. Knowledge, he felt, would come in time; and it was his due as her husband to be her teacher.

Ethan tapped the plate and grimaced as Brit selected an exceptionally raw piece of steak to consume. Flicking his eyes to the waitress, he scowled as he wondered about the quality of the meat. Clean, pure foods were difficult to come by and Ethan spent plenty to be sure both were provided for Brit. His thoughts drifted to musing about purity and its definition. He wondered whether the state of purity was Boolean in its meaning. His wife was always clean from foulness and dirt, and she held a pure heart free from the defilement of sin. Ethan also knew that Brit held no sinister or improper motives, and that her words were free of barbarous or improper words or phrases. However, he was keenly aware that he had desired to give her his vitae and, by doing so, he felt she thrived. Did he rob her of purity by doing so or is just her blood mixed for now? He felt the latter was the case as, given enough time, her blood would purify itself again.

Brit sculpted the mound of mashed potatoes into a simple volcano and the melted butter flowed from the center like yellow lava. Outside, shrill shouts between a stripper and drunk over payment disrupted the unusual quiet of the night. Ethan watched his wife who seemed not to notice as she sacrificed a virginal pea to the God of the Potato Volcano. With no little contempt, Ethan considered the city’s population and smirked at the number of citizens that confused innocence and purity with chastity. It was all quite simple to Ethan. Innocence was freedom of guilt or sin. It knew no evil. It was blameless and harmless in effect or intention. It was candid. It lacked guile or self-consciousness. In the Garden of Paradise, Eve lost her innocence by eating of the apple of knowledge – not by laying with Adam.

Purity defined the wholeness of one’s body, soul, and mind. The mixing of impurities affected one’s purity. Again, Eve might have been physically pure when she was cast from the garden, but she had corrupted her mind by eating of forbidden fruit. Brit looked up and saw him watching her. With a slight puffing of her cheeks, she took a large bite of the volcano. Ethan thought of the teachings of Kant in regards to purity. If mixing was equated with defiling, then what purpose is served by intentional attempts to cross boundaries so rigidly established by theorists? Ethan felt most confident that there was no evidence that Brit was less pure for knowing him.

Ethan’s mind went once again to Eve feeling she was innocent until she ate of the fruit. Similarly, he felt that Eve was pure until the fruit corrupted her mind. Many men had fallen due to the corruption of a woman’s mind, but those women were neither innocent or pure such incidents occurred. His mind went back to chastity and he considered its definition. He pondered whether someone was chaste if following God’s laws. Chastity involved personal integrity, but also restraint and simplicity in design and expression. Chastity meant purity in conduct and intention, and concerned itself with the quality or state of being chaste. As for the ponderings of the populace, Ethan remembered a discussion long ago. Did chastity mean abstention from unlawful sexual intercourse or did it mean abstention from all sexual intercourse? The question was never decided that night. Catholic law taught that complete abstention would violate God’s laws in a marriage. Therefore, Ethan felt that, until the apple, Eve remained chaste, innocent and pure.