Melissa Marks

Expulsion conflates a decisive moment of self-revelation with the persistent continuum of human work, a slip on a banana peel with epic pain and joy. Was there movement in Eden? Paradise was only eyes, first passive, then active. Form was ready to make itself. Blossoms were ready to die.
Eden is our Garden, our playground, our mess. It is both place AND time, an early era, full of precocious experiments. There was a gathering energy, a sense of boundless freedom. All the excitement of a newly differentiated self (that may have been later). It was repetitive (maybe in a good way?) Things did heat up ... when the interaction began. Provocation is fun, an invitation to play. 
I never actually "fell" out of Eden. I wasn't "kicked out" either. Although, there was a vivid feeling of wanting to get THE HELL OUT. The Eternal was boring, a fantasy of course, but completely static. Expulsion wasn't smooth, no one-way ticket out. It was a spastic, snaky path. 
Finally, it was the irrevocable gift that made me stay. Imagination and reality bound up in one fabulous internal/external combo. Place and metaphor - together at last.