My friend had binge watched it with his mum. He cares and lives with her as she enters the last few months of her life. These are precious moments and brings much to their hearts and minds as they share time together. There were many scenes in the series that capture the imagination and explore its basic themes. The final scene seems to encapsulate the ethic at the heart of the novel and Steinbeck’s view of humanity. He said of “East of Eden”, that everything he had written up to this point was in preparation for writing the novel.
The story concludes with a deathbed scene. The father Adam is dying having suffered another stroke having heard the news that his son Abra has died at war. The other son Caleb (Cal) is carrying the guilt and shame for driving his brother to go to war, having brought him to see their mother, Kate or Cathy. She is a character depicted as pure evil. Cal believes he is like his mother in nature. The final scene is a moment when his father could leave his son with generational guilt, that he would carry this on into the next generation. Adam himself had carried guilt from his own brother’s death earlier in the book. The family’s servant and primary care giver Lee encourages Cal to go to his father and for his father to choose to offer his surviving son forgiveness. Adam, barely able to speak says to Cal “Timshel” meaning “Thou Mayest”.
In saying “Timshel”, Adam is finally offering his less favoured son Cal the love he has withheld from him. He is also offering forgiveness and the opportunity to live a new life free from the generational trauma and guilt. He is offered a different path should he so choose it. It is up to him. Nothing is inevitable, nothing is fated. He does not have follow the path of those before him. He is not his mother, who is the monstrous character at the heart of the story, nor to remain bitter and broken like his father, cut off from all human emotion. After his father blesses him Cal hugs his father for the first time and lies with him. These last moments are the first moments of their true connection.
Watching those moments brought back powerful feelings of being at the deathbed of my own father and paternal grandfather. These are powerful feelings and memories. I also looked at my own response and those final conversations. I also thought of my friend and the final months he is spending with his mother. Now we do not know what happened to Cal after his father died. That was down to his response to life as it happened. What is clear is that he is set free to live his life, free from ancestral guilt. It was down to the choices he makes in the future. This is powerful, if only we could hold to the truth. It is something that I have held in me heart these last few weeks as I have been away from work and off and an adventure in Prague with the word “Timshel” and Steinbeck’s interpretation in his great novel “Thou Mayest” singing in my heart.
Now Steinbeck’s interpretation of “Timshel” is disputed. Technically the Hebrew word from Genesis Ch 4 v 7 should be spelled “Timshol”. Some translate it is as “Thou shalt rule” or “Thou wilt rule”. The 1917 Jewish publication society translates it as “Thou mayest rule over.” Steinbeck chose “Timshel” and it is the essence of the novel and his view of humanity. That nothing was sealed, nothing was fated, we can make our own decisions.
“Timshel” first appears in the middle of Steinbeck’s novel and is the central theme and ethic at the heart of this epic. It appears during a conversation between Adam Trask, Lee and Samuel Hamilton. Adam is a kind but flawed man who keeps on making bad decisions at crucial times in his life. Perhaps his biggest flaw being that he can be too trusting when it is obvious that a particular person’s motives are not well intentioned. Lee who is the family servant of Chinese origin living at a time of overt racism towards the Chinese community is California. Lee claims to have discovered “Timshel” which he sees as the most important word in Hebrew. The final character is Samuel Hamilton. He is based on Steinbeck’s own grandfather. He is a man who is respected and admired by all who know him. He has a sharp and inquiring mind and deep love for reading.
I cannot share the whole extract but will share a crucial passage that follows.
“After two years we felt that we could approach your sixteen verses of the fourth chapter of Genesis. My old gentlemen felt that these words were very important too—‘Thou shalt’ and ‘Do thou.’ And this was the gold from our mining: ‘Thou mayest.’ ‘Thou mayest rule over sin.’ The old gentlemen smiled and nodded and felt the years were well spent. It brought them out of their Chinese shells too, and right now they are studying Greek.”
Samuel said, “It’s a fantastic story. And I’ve tried to follow and maybe I’ve missed somewhere. Why is this word so important?”
Lee’s hand shook as he filled the delicate cups. He drank his down in one gulp. “Don’t you see?” he cried. “The American Standard translation orders men to triumph over sin, and you can call sin ignorance. The King James translation makes a promise in ‘Thou shalt,’ meaning that men will surely triumph over sin. But the Hebrew word, the word timshel—‘Thou mayest’— that gives a choice. It might be the most important word in the world. That says the way is open. That throws it right back on a man. For if ‘Thou mayest’—it is also true that ‘Thou mayest not.’ Don’t you see?”
“Yes, I see. I do see. But you do not believe this is divine law. Why do you feel its importance?”
“Ah!” said Lee. “I’ve wanted to tell you this for a long time. I even anticipated your questions and I am well prepared. Any writing which has influenced the thinking and the lives of innumerable people is important. Now, there are many millions in their sects and churches who feel the order, ‘Do thou,’ and throw their weight into obedience. And there are millions more who feel predestination in ‘Thou shalt.’ Nothing they may do can interfere with what will be. But ‘Thou mayest’! Why, that makes a man great, that gives him stature with the gods, for in his weakness and his filth and his murder of his brother he has still the great choice. He can choose his course and fight it through and win.” Lee’s voice was a chant of triumph.
Adam said, “Do you believe that, Lee?”
“Yes, I do. Yes, I do. It is easy out of laziness, out of weakness, to throw oneself into the lap of deity, saying, ‘I couldn’t help it; the way was set.’ But think of the glory of the choice! That makes a man a man. A cat has no choice, a bee must make honey. There’s no godliness there. And do you know, those old gentlemen who were sliding gently down to death are too interested to die now?”
Adam said, “Do you mean these Chinese men believe the Old Testament?”
Lee said, “These old men believe a true story, and they know a true story when they hear it. They are critics of truth. They know that these sixteen verses are a history of humankind in any age or culture or race. They do not believe a man writes fifteen and three-quarter verses of truth and tells a lie with one verb. Confucius tells men how they should live to have good and successful lives. But this—this is a ladder to climb to the stars.” Lee’s eyes shone. “You can never lose that. It cuts the feet from under weakness and cowardliness and laziness.”
“Timshel”, “Thou Mayest” is the theme at the heart of the story. That we have the freedom to make choices and decisions, even if we have got it wrong many times before, nothing is predetermined. We aren’t the only force at work of course. We can only choose within the confines of the world in which we find ourselves.
These thoughts were singing in my heart as I wandered round Prague and spent time in conversations with people from different parts of the world. People from different cultures with vastly different histories, but who at the heart was a tradition that believed in human capacity. I listened to three histories of Unitarianism from a Czech, Transylvania and American perspective and shared from a British perspective myself. I walked round a city that a little over forty years ago was under Communist rule, freedom was limited in ways I cannot even begin to imagine. I shared in some beautiful conversations, it is amazing what people will share with you. I spoke with a mother of two teenage children who shared that freedom came at the age her children were now and how she cannot even begin to convey to them what that was like then. I had an incredible conversation with a man who shared about his upbringing in a culture he felt was alien to him, one that they consider the ultimate in freedom, but is fraught with danger. He shared of the decisions he had made and some of his regrets as well as those of his family, especially his son who made a terrible decision, one which has led to his loss of liberty and the guilt he feels for perhaps not always being there for his son. He himself is embarking on a new career and the privilege and challenges of making these choices. It was a week rich in conversation and experience. One which will feed me for months no doubt. I am grateful that you allowed me to go.
As I was wandering sometimes getting lost, actuakly taking the same wrong turn several times I was reminded of a wonderful piece that I always relate too,
Autobiography in Five Short Chapters – Portia Nelson
I
I walk down the street.
There is a deep hole in the sidewalk
I fall in.
I am lost … I am helpless.
It isn’t my fault.
It takes me forever to find a way out.
II
I walk down the same street.
There is a deep hole in the sidewalk.
I pretend I don’t see it.
I fall in again.
I can’t believe I am in the same place
but, it isn’t my fault.
It still takes a long time to get out.
III
I walk down the same street.
There is a deep hole in the sidewalk.
I see it is there.
I still fall in … it’s a habit.
my eyes are open
I know where I am.
It is my fault.
I get out immediately.
IV
I walk down the same street.
There is a deep hole in the sidewalk.
I walk around it.
V
I walk down another street.
by Portia Nelson
As I wandered around the beautiful city one day and thought of the decisions we make and of course the limits of those decisions. The mistakes me make and the opportunities we have to put things right or fail to put them right. I remembered a wonderful and funny anecdote from Steinbeck’s life. Apparently his puppy ate half the original manuscript for Of Mice and Men. Steinbeck said ‘I was pretty mad, but the poor little fellow may have been acting critically’." Now I wish I'd known this when we read “Of Mice and Men” at school. Could've used it as an excuse for not handing in my homework.
This reminded me of the work of Viktor Frankl. That when he was imprisoned in a Nazi death camp not only was his liberty taken from him, but also his work. Of course it was his determination to continue his work and the love of his wife that helped him find the meaning that kept him alive in this hell hole. Frankl could have escaped the Nazi death camps, but chose to remain with his family. In 1941 he was offered an American visa that could save his life. But his elderly parents couldn't come with him. Viktor struggled with the decision of personal freedom while leaving his family to face their fate.
One day while visiting his parents home he noticed a small piece of marble lying on a table. His father explained that he had recovered it from the ruins of a synagogue destroyed by the Nazis. The fragment came from a representation of the Ten Commandments. Just one gilded Hebrew letter remained. It referred to a commandment Viktor knew well. “Honor thy father and thy mother.” Viktor made his decision, he stayed, and his Visa expired. Later that year, he married a nurse named Tilly Grosser. The whole family were deported to the Theresienstadt ghetto. His father Gabriel died there from starvation and pneumonia. Viktor and Tilly were sent to Auschwitz. For years, Viktor had been writing a book about the human search for meaning. He had hidden the manuscript inside the lining of his coat. At Auschwitz, the guards took his belongings, his clothes, his coat and the manuscript he had spent years writing, everything was lost. Everything but the one thing that was at the heart of his work. In those horrific conditions where millions were brutalised and murdered he remembered a line from Friederich Nietzsche “He who has a why to live for can bear almost any how.” Frankl began his search for his own reason. He imagined standing in a lecture hall after the war, explaining what he had witnessed. He began rebuilding his lost manuscript in his mind.
Whenever possible, he wrote ideas on scraps of paper. He also thought about Tilly. He imagined conversations with her, pictured her face, remembered the life they shared together. He also turned his thoughts and actions to helping others, helped them find their own meaning, for something in the future. In April 27, 1945 he and others were liberated. He was the only member of his family to survive who had stayed behind. His sister Stella who had escaped to Australia and was still living. Frankl returned to Vienna and continued his work, he also reconstructed his lost manuscript and published it as “The Doctor and the Soul”. He began writing another book. This one was about what he had experienced inside the concentration camps. He dictated it in just nine days. In 1946 “Man's Search for Meaning” was published. It’s central message stating People cannot always choose their circumstances. Yet even in extreme suffering, they may retain some freedom in how they respond.
As he said "everything can be taken from a man but one thing: the last of the human freedoms—to choose one's attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one's own way." That even in conditions of absolute horror, a person's inner reaction is still a personal choice. Not an easy one though.
As I have said many times “Man’s Search for Meaning” is one of the two most important books I have ever read. I see strong parallels between Frankl’s concept of the last of human freedoms, to choose one’s own way and Steinbeck’s Timshel as outlined in “East of Eden”. Both reject the idea that we are merely passive products of our genetics, parenting, or environments. The proclaim each persons ability to choose ones response is not just a simple gift but a heavy ethical burden. For Frankl it is centred around Logotherapy, the idea that human beings are driven primarily by a "will to meaning" rather than pleasure or power. He famously proposed that the United States supplement the Statue of Liberty on the East Coast with a Statue of Responsibility on the West Coast, arguing that freedom without responsibility degenerates into arbitrariness. Steinbeck's novel acts as a practical illustration of this idea. Written as a moral paradigm for his sons, East of Eden demonstrates through the generational struggles of the Trask family that true meaning and redemption are found when characters take responsibility for their choices, break cycles of resentment, and actively choose love and goodness over passive victimhood.
Now this all sounds pretty simple. Maybe it is but it is far from easy. I know myself I fall short every day. I make decisions or refuse to make decisions that my heart and soul know are correct. I am far from perfect. That said I strive each and every day and attempt to live free form the regret of I would have if only I could have. Well, these two post war master pieces remind me of what is possible if I keep on turning imperfectly towards what might yet be.
I’m going to end with a final favourite line from “East of Eden” It is spoken by the heart and soul of the story Lee who says to Abra after falling short once again and saying she never felt good enough. He tells her:
“And now that you don't have to be perfect, you can be good.”
We start where we are and do what we can with what we have, perfectly imperfect children of love, knowing that perfection is the enemy of the good.
Please find below a video devotion based on the material in this "blogspot"
