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Adam Ondi Ahman - ๐ˆ​๐ผ​๐ฒ​๐‘‹ ๐‚​๐‘Œ​๐ผ​๐ด ๐‚​๐‘‹​๐ฒ​๐‘Œ

from Folk Song of the Fringe - ๐™​๐ฌ​๐ฟ ๐​๐ช​๐‘ ๐ฒ๐‘‚ ๐‘„ ๐™​๐‘‰​๐ฎ​๐‘Œ​๐พ by Two For The Show

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about

This song describes my visit to a site in Missouri formerly known as Adam Ondi Ahman in 2006. It's open farmland today but, back in the 1830s, Joseph Smith proclaimed it to be the place where Adam and Eve lived after being expelled from the Garden of Eden. I'm not sure I believe in a literal Adam and Eve, but that day felt like a pilgrimage to an important place, and that's the spirit in which this song is sung.

lyrics

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Adam worshipped at an altar built from smooth, round river stones.
Knowing not the ritualโ€™s purpose, he knelt there just the same.
And this he did, day after day, in a solitary limbo,
never growing old, and never feeling pain. Iโ€™m going back there once again.

To Adam-Ondi-Ahman where the Ancient One of Days did walk
and talk with our first parents like a person, face to face.
Just like a person face to face.

Eve was accosted by the serpent,
that snake of ancient disrepute.
Slyly, did that wily trickster beguile this innocent.
He plucked the fruit โ€ฆ and she did eat,
gaining God's forbidden wisdom.
And Adam, when he learned what mischief had transpired,
knew just what he must do.

In Adam-Ondi-Ahman where the mother of all living spawned a
race of human children who are propagating still.
Could she imagine where it all would lead?

As for Father Adam, don't doubt ... he was hopelessly naรฏve.
Of the notion of small children, he hardly could conceive.
A child himself, born yesterday, he could never have predictedโ€ฆ
That today he'd be the father of mankind, the patriarch of all time.

To Adam-Ondi-Ahman where Father Adam came to be.
Adam-Ondi-Ahman where Father Adam came to be.

And thatโ€™s my destination on this brisk Missouri day.
Iโ€™ve come several hundred miles to see this place.

Adam-Ondi-Ahman, where โ€ฆ such things came to pass
at the mysterious beginnings ... of human history.
Adam-Ondi-Ahman, where โ€ฆ gods and angels tarried
at the great inauguration of our genealogy.

credits

from Folk Song of the Fringe - ๐™​๐ฌ​๐ฟ ๐​๐ช​๐‘ ๐ฒ๐‘‚ ๐‘„ ๐™​๐‘‰​๐ฎ​๐‘Œ​๐พ, released July 29, 2020

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