I will make him a helper corresponding to him. Everett Fox, Think of that moment when Annie Sullivan thrust Helen Keller's hand under the outpouring of the water pump, and then fingered the letters W-A-T-E-R on her palm, and the young blind and deaf women, for the first time in her life, discovered what words were about. Her heart leapt at the discovery of language and the joy of naming. Whatever abilities other animals may have for relating to their environment and there are some uncanny instincts out there , as far as we can figure, only human beings name things.
Only we have the full gift of language. The author of the first reading from Genesis 2 celebrates that wonder. The Lord God said: It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make a helper suited to him. So the Lord God formed out of the ground all the wild animals and all the birds of the air, and he brought them to the man to see what he would call them; whatever the man called each living creature was then its name. The man gave names to all the tame animals, all the birds of the air, and all the wild animals; but none proved to be a helper suited to the man.
First Reading. Some writers, under the rubric of deep ecology, lament this image of human sovereignty among the creatures. They find here one of the roots of Western industrial society's abuse of nature. They see here a dangerous anthropocentrism, distracting us from the biocentrism that the future of life on planet Earth demands. The tenth-century BCE author of this narrative was not, of course, addressing our ecological concerns.
This story is about neither bio- nor anthropocentrism ; it is about Geocentrism. It is about the relationship among creatures that stems from our relationship with the Creator.
But this is only a setup for what follows. Read on! We do read on, and come to the part about the creation of a woman from one of the man's ribs. This strikes another sour note in some contemporary ears.
