Janis in Genesis

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Now the man had relations with his wife Eve, and she conceived and gave birth to Cain, and she said, “I have gotten a manchild with the help of the LORD.” Genesis 4:1  NASB

The man – The common language of all humanity is pain.  That covers the gamut.  It’s not just physical pain.  There is plenty of that, to be sure.  Humanity’s common language also involves emotional pain.  Since the time of the Garden there seems to be more than enough of that version as well.  Perhaps we can see some of the source of this tragedy if we read between the lines, or in this case, add the music between the words in the Genesis account.  Let’s start with “the man.”  This short insight into Havvah’s life after her fall begins with an unexpected Hebrew word, ha-adam.  I believe there is a good reason why the name of the man is not included in this text.  The text doesn’t say “Adam knew Eve.”  It says, “the man knew his wife.”  Adam is no longer the lover in the Garden.  He has become her oppressor.  He is no longer the man she once knew.  He is the source of her emotional pain.  I am quite sure she could sing along with Janis.

“Try just a little bit harder.”  Isn’t that what we do when we have serious conflict with the one in love?  We try.  We try harder.  The world’s advice, before telling us to give up and get divorced, is simple:  try harder.  Sometimes it works – for awhile.  But serious conflict, like the conflict that comes from refusing to forgive, or from crossing the boundaries God established for roles in marriage, or from upside-down power struggles hardly ever gets resolved by trying harder.  The Genesis account tells us why this is the case.  Nevertheless, we try, hoping that we will get what Janis wanted.  Everyone wants someone, and the clamor in the soul to have companionship runs so deep that we project the hope we need into the life of another.  [audio:https://skipmoen.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/02/Janice-2-1.mp3|titles=Janice 2 1]

“Get it while you can.”  If we can’t have the deep harmony that fills the whole (yes, this is intentional) in our hearts, we will take what we can find.  But we know it’s not enough.  It’s an anesthetic.  Emotional numbness.  Eventually it wears off and the pain is back.  Now we reach the suffering stage. [audio:https://skipmoen.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/02/Janice-3-1.mp3|titles=Janice 3 1]

That’s right, baby! Take another piece of my heart.  Break another piece of my heart.  I’m going to hang in there.  I’m going to hold on while you do the damage.  One of my dear friends said to me, “I’m so sad.  We used to be so good together.  Now there’s just sadness.”

Janis helps us feel Genesis.  Adam becomes “the man” because the relationship is broken.  I am quite sure that Havvah tried to get it back.  I am quite sure that she did all she could to make her man feel as if he were the only one.  I have no doubt she took the love she could get, hoping it would heal.  Jewish legend supplies the outcome.  Adam leaves her.  For more than one hundred years, they are separated.  I imagine that Havvah saw the handwriting on the wall (to use an anachronism).  She knew long before he left that it was headed toward disaster.  So, she did what any woman would do – any woman who carried an unrelenting guilt, a man who refused to forgive and a suffering love.  She found another.  In the Genesis account, she barters for a replacement.  Kayin (Cain) becomes the new man.  She concludes her story with the song, Ball and Chain.   [audio:https://skipmoen.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/02/Janice-4-1.mp3|titles=Janice 4 1]

Janis Joplin never found her way out.  Perhaps Havvah didn’t either.  Havvah did have the promise.  Someday justice would come.  Someday mercy would prevail.  The head of the serpent would be crushed.  But most of us don’t seem to be able to hang on until that day.  Most of us go out with Janis.  “Move over, baby.”  After we experience betrayal, heartache and faithlessness, we move on, repeating the very actions that caused us so much pain.  We feel justified because it happened to us.  We forget that we have trampled on God’s honor and He didn’t leave us!  We eat from the Tree of what’s best for me.  We forget that it was God’s Tree in the first place and that it also has a blessed purpose.

Janis in Genesis shows us who we are, not who we can become.  Havvah still walks the earth, struggling with “the man.”  What happens to her is up to each of us – male or female.

Topical Index: Janis Joplin, Havvah, Genesis 4:1, pain

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