Longevity

Sam Rosenman

Methuselah, who was Noah's grandfather, famously lived to 969. The bible, being a patriarchy (Abraham,Isaac and Jacob) is not "woke." Joseph, the son of Jacob, interpreted Pharoah's dream about the fatted calves and became the Sam Rosenman of the Egyptians. Significantly none of Joseph's brothers recognized the sibling they sold into slavery. If the Bible had been written by Machiavelli such murderous rivalry would be the roadmap to power. What is not mentioned in he Pentateuch is the fact that Methuselah had what everyone wants, "world enough and time"--a la Marvell's "To His Coy Mistress." Faust had to sell his soul for same. Can it be said that the apple didn't fall far from the tree? The ark is a symbol of longevity. In order to spare mankind two of all the species were hoisted aboard under the theory that the male and female zygotes would go on to propagate the varying speed species. "An aged man is but a paltry thing, a tattered cloak upon a stick..." sang Yeats.

read the review of Francis Levy's The Kafka Studies Department in Booklife

and listen to "It's a Man's Man's Man's World" by James Brown