Dorothee Soelle — Wherever She Was, There Was Eden

Mark Twain wrote a humorous little book purporting to contain the diaries of Adam and Eve. Under the title “After the Fall,” the only entry is an excerpt from Eve’s diary. Similarly, after the entry “Forty Years Later,” there is a reflection on death: “But when one of us must leave first, I ask that it be me. For he is strong, I am weak. He does not need me as much as I need him. A life without him would be no life for me--how should I bear that? And this longing, too, never goes away and will not stop voicing itself as long as my kind, womankind, walk the face of the Earth. I am the first woman, and I will be born yet again when the last woman is born.”

Adam had one more thing to add, an inscription on Eve’s grave:

“Wherever she was, there was Eden.”

Dorothee Soelle

The Mystery of Death