Where did your name come from?
I used to go around for years, even as early as a month ago, saying Erich is right after Enoch in the genealogy portion of the Old Testament. I learned a few minutes ago from “ye old AI” that it is indeed false. I’m not sure what I did hear then when I was streaming the Bible. Probably what I wanted to, especially if my mind was wandering away from genealogy back into short stories about creation and original sin because like it or not we are a part of that. When wandering happens, likening the story to my own idea of what it all may mean in accordance to my life, I may have interjected my name into the story to block out boring content about who is descended from who, to live up to something that I hear in unlikely places.
When I’m out in a crowd of other sinners created in the image of God and descended from kings, when there is the potential for fun but there is nervous excitement in the air I do hear my name but I also hear the words “weird” and “asshole” of all things. That is when I want to take a bite out of the apple. I want to eat it all to show those around me that who they are referring to is not only all that but he is more.
He is chosen.
Erich is a sinner. He is in the wrong place if they think it is weird that an asshole should show them what they do not know already. He is tempted to be wrong so that they can see he was created in a perfect garden that has a way of asking too much of the woman so the man must answer with a discretionary “no” when he is unwilling.
If I give in to biting the apple and I become a weird asshole is it not asking for a way out of being perfect by myself?
Erich was created to not be perfect but rather to wander this garden for the genealogy within it that was not his choosing.
My name I didn’t choose.
I chose these friends.
I can do this.
Say no.
Know.
Francis Erich McElroy 