Musings on Bereishis

1. Adam is rarely referred to as "ish" often "haAdam" which is strange - I don't have a clear way to read that
2. By contrast chava is often called "isha" - I don't know if anyone talks about these first two
3. The tree of life was referenced first but all the hubub is over the tree of knowledge of good and bad (which doesn't sound like it should necessarily be a bad thing from its name). Also, what is the tree of life? is it Torah?
4. After the chayt G becomes really worried that Adam will eat from the tree of life because adam would then live forever so He kicks adam out and blocks the garden with a sword
If the tree of life is Torah is this saying that G responded to adam's chayt by preventing him from gaining some kind of Torah insight which prevents death?
I think that pshat in "let us make man" is that G was consulting all that was created and confirming that the man thing He was creating had a place in it.

My general approach is that the story is a kind of philosophical pre-man study in the vein of Locke and Hobbes. G investigates the pre-state of man, explaining that he naturally had a tzelem elokim to study the world (so he named all of the animals),

1) that man naturally feels alone in the world because of his clear distinction among the animal species,

2) that with a partner man can gain comfort and live in peace with his natural distinction,

3) that before man even exists there is a choice whether to choose the bad or good path or the path of life

4) we are innately drawn to the bad or good path and the Torah (the path of life) is withheld to us by whatever the sword symbolizes (perhaps a fear of death?)

I think that adam somewhat reflects all of us - we all have the natural distinctive ability to study the world. But before we even begin or maybe seconds after we've just learned the names of the animals, we turn to study good and bad, abandoning the natural state of man which led to our existence (the path of life).

We choose it because of desire, weakness, fear, anger, pain, etc. But if we would even do as little as eat from the tree of life beforehand we would have knowledge enough to survive the path of good or bad.

It strikes me as an extremely cogent explanation of man's natural inclination to get mired in the good and bad rather than enjoy the garden. Fortunate are the people who have the Torah - one day they will find the garden.