When I am dead, I hope it is said;

Actually, I've seen it pretty much the same way... this just throws a new spin on the initial development. The Eden story becomes us moving from raw Self to when we hit the real world and throw up defenses against it, and the rest becomes road map on how to get 'back'. That provides a nice link to other philosophies that I've felt much more at home in than the traditional Judeo-Christian tradition.