THE CAINS ARE STILL POWERFUL, BUT WE MUST WIN

A notion stays with me about the story of Cain and Abel.
I’ve mentioned before that Cain tilled the ground, like his father, but Abel was a herdsman. If you’ve had the good luck to see quotations from any medieval chronicle comparing tillers with pastoral people, you will know that tillers tend to look down on herders as ‘lazy’ and ‘idle’ compared with their hardworking, virtuous selves.
And from that I ask a question: was Cain’s motivation always to show himself as somehow ‘better’ than his brother? Is that why he tilled the ground? Actually, Cain probably learned that from his father — and did he pick up what might have been the same attitude toward Abel? I wonder because, more and more, I feel that the desire to show oneself somehow ‘better’ than (fill in the blank) seems to be at the root of most of the troubles we bipeds make for ourselves and other creatures besides.
Don’t mistake me here and, more importantly, don’t confuse the desire just described with a passion for any particular discipline and a concomitant desire to do one’s personal best in that particular occupation, job and/or field of study. The two are very different. And herding can be hard work too; it’s a different kind of work which seems to require more attention to smaller details than does plowing and planting. It too can take hard labor, especially when helping a ewe, cow or goat deliver a newborn.
James Herriot has written that two things are foundational in shepherding: cleanliness and gentleness. Would this point to Abel being a gentler character than his brother? Maybe. Certainly…