“Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they realized they were naked; so they sewed fig leaves together and made coverings for themselves.” Genesis 3:7 NIV
The very first thing that happened the moment they went their own way was a sudden realization of their deficiencies. The Bible says their eyes “were opened”, but this wasn’t an optometrist observation, but an existential rude awakening.: the person next to me needs to be “covered”, and so do I.
I see this reality on a daily basis, both in individual sessions and couples counseling. Hyper awareness of oneself leads to self consciousness and excessive focus on others leads to seeing all the ways they aren’t what they should be.
The tree of knowledge of good and evil leaves us hungrier than when we were before. The is not to grow our belly and then criticize ourselves/others, but to be content with self and the world.