Knowledge and Shame

I've always thought it was weird that when Adam and Eve ate of the tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil the first thing they did was to get dressed.

I mean, nakedness is generally connected with shame, not guilt. If they became aware of their guilt by eating the fruit, you'd expect them to wash rather than dress. Feeling dirty or stained--like Lady MacBeth's hands--that's feeling guilty. Feeling vulnerable, exposed, naked--that's feeling shame.

I felt shame and humiliation yesterday morning when the Hausmeister yelled something in my face.

He yelled at me because, you know, I can't understand German unless it's REALLY REALLY LOUD. And as the word AUSZIEHEN echoed down the hall, I realized that it must mean, among other things, 'to move out'.

That coincidence of learning and shame made me realize that to learn something is dependent on realizing there was something you didn't know. One can't put on knowledge without also sensing one's own shameful, naked ignorance.

So the Genesis story makes more sense to me now. When Adam and Eve ate from the tree, it must have been gaining knowledge that made them feel ashamed, not gaining the knowledge of good and evil that made them feel guilty.

Incidentally, the word I learned, ausziehen, also means 'to get undressed'.