WILL UNWOUND #588: “Weekend Meditation – Is Heaven a Kind of Library?”
October 22, 2011In yesterday’s blog post, I provided a link to 35 of the most beautiful libraries in the world. I was struck by one of the comments about library #17. Jessica wrote: “If there is any justice that’s what heaven looks like.”
I guess on second thought it shouldn’t surprise me that a librarian would envision a beautiful library as a kind of heaven. Imagine having every book you ever wanted to read and being able to read it in a library of otherworldly beauty. Paradise indeed.
On the other hand, even though I too see this scenario as heavenly, I would hope that it would be just one little aspect of a richly diversified heavenly landscape. I have been a Roman Catholic my entire life and the one aspect of my religion that I have struggled with the most is the traditional vision of heaven…the floating clouds, the choirs of angels singing church music, and the harp. Especially the harp. A few days ago one of you Unwinders mentioned in a comment that the difference between heaven and hell is that in heaven they greet you with harp melodies and in hell you are greeted with accordion polkas. I don’t know about you but for me that’s a very difficult choice.
Of course, whenever I brought up my objections to heaven to Father Giglio during my long tenure as an altar boy, his eyes would light up and he would say that heaven is the gift of being in the presence of God, the being than which nothing greater can be conceived. I wasn’t impressed. I wanted to know if there was baseball in heaven. Father Giglio would shake his head and walk away. Now I want to know if there are golf courses in heaven. I heard that Father Giglio passed away a few years ago. Maybe somehow he could get word to me.
I do find it fascinating that while traditional church membership is dropping dramatically in our country, Americans still believe in God (92%) and heaven (85%) in big numbers. Clearly there is a yearning for the things of the spirit even if there is declining interest in finding those things in church.
Why do so many people still believe in God and heaven in a time when churches are becoming emptier and emptier? I have a theory. My theory has a lot to do with life. Life is a very painful proposition full of trials, tribulations, and suffering. We Catholics call it the “vale of tears.” If you scratch below the surface you will find that almost everyone has some kind of a cross to bear: undying grief for a deceased loved one, a financial catastrophe, a physical tragedy, an addiction, a serious illness, and even an inability to find a job. Look beyond our borders to countries around the world and the pain and suffering increases exponentially.
Deep down inside most of us is a sense that there has to be some kind of relief or even justice from all this suffering. That relief would be heaven. A hungry person wants a paradise of plenty. A poor person wants a heaven where poverty does not exist. A grieving person wants unification with his or her loved one. A person who has sacrificed his life to Jesus wants to be at his side in the next world. A soldier dying on the battlefield wants peace and tranquility. A sick person wants wholeness and healing.
We value most in heaven what we don’t have in life. In a perfect existence (and somehow we have this Platonic notion of perfection in our DNA) we look to heaven to erase all that we suffered on earth and pay us back a hundred fold. To paraphrase the Unwinder quoted above – “If there is any justice, heaven will look like this…….…”
Question of the Day: How do you fill in the blank?
Personally I see it as a joyous reunion with those we have missed for many years. A reunion that ideally would take place in a beautiful library!
I’m hoping for the chance to explore the rest of the universe. This is a very nice little planet, but after all, it’s just a miniscule part of creation.
Beam me up Lord.
You are going to hate me Will–
“If their is any justice…I won’t spend my life thinking about getting to heaven, but about making my small community here a better place for me and for those few I choose to encounter.”
My opinion is to many people try to get into heaven or obsess about the afterlife. People do not do things because they are ethical or just or nice (I don’t use the word moral. I’m not a big fan of that word). They do them because they are trying to, as my grandma says, get a coupon to get into heaven. I would rather focus my energy on trying to improve myself for the sake of being a better person than getting to some ideal heaven.
But I will give you this, I believe that on your way to any heaven, if such a place exists, you will have to encounter the people you wronged before you ever get there.
Sorry to be so serious, but the last two days have been stressful to the point where my body broke down.
No need to apologize, A.E. I was raised Jewish, and although I no longer practice, the idea of working towards some eventual reward is alien to me. However, as I mentioned in my comment below, the idea of a heaven that is exactly what we think it’s going to be… well, it appeals to me.
I’ve had days that were that stressful, so I understand. If I thought it would help, I would like a bunch of lolcats and the like. Instead I’ll just say that I hope it gets better soon.
I was raised a Christian and even so I don’t personally buy the idea of the afterlife and heaven as relayed in the bible – and I’ll admit I’m not religious as an adult – I’m spiritual but not religious.
And I too agree with A.E., we’re better off, and the world would be better off too, if we all concentrate on being better persons in the here and now, than living our lives with a goal towards earning brownie points to get admitted to a heaven that you can’t know exists on this side of life.
No offense to anyone; that is just my two cents worth.
I don’t usually discuss religion as it can be a hot and emotional topic for people.
BRavo! Coming to the discussion late, after a weekend in bed with a bad cold…I can think of a whole slew of people who are smugly certain of their welcome in the afterlife due to their attentiveness in church or temple or wherever, but who in life have shown meanness and prejudice and contempt for others (human and animal and to Mother Earth herself). I can think of people like this who, if I were to encounter them in Heaven, I would be convinced I’d been sent to Hell. And if these bigots and selfish prigs were truly there, I’d want to move on. BP execs and others raping the planet need not apply…
To that picture I would add: at least one overstuffed, red, velvet couch; my childhood dog, Agatha (part Labrador, part Old English Sheepdog, and part Afghan Hound); Holly, the cat who is using me as furniture as I type this); and a bottomless mug of hot chocolate.
Ever since I saw the movie What Dreams May Come (which I know is based on a book, but I saw the movie first), I’ve liked that was presented in that movie: the idea that we each have interconnected heavens that are exactly what we think they will be.
Sad, I just hit the worng key and lost a half hour’s composition. Screw it.
HATE when that happens!! Really. I looked forward to reading your comment, Mick.
Fate, clumsiness, divine intervention, or karma?
I should know better and compose locally, not online. See below. Lesson learned–again.
My question is: after the reunion and spending some time, a long time even, in your own state of nirvana, then what? You got lots o’ time!
Once there was a zen master who asked his students if they had any questions. One student had a question: “Master, what happens to us when we die?” The master replied: “I do not know, for I have not yet died.”
Actually, eternity is outside of time. There is no sense of time in eternity.
You get to do it over again, I think.
Perhaps the afterlife, assuming there is one, is whatever you most want it to be.
I think life is energy and it seems to me there is more too it than a physical form so I am inclined to believe there is a life of some sort after the corporeal one.
But where we go after this life and what it is like?
In my opinion, that is not something you can tell from this side of the equation.
And I think people in the west are busier now by far than in eras past so I bet that is one reason why church going/attending organized religious services of any kind has dropped – more specifically I think there are two big reasons for the drop in church going attendance, although I’m sure having said that they are not the only two – but those two reasons are:
A. People who are rushing around all week would rather not have to get up early on what might be their only morning at home during the week to attend church (granted there are some church services in the evening/other times and other religious services at other times but for Christian Church goers….)
&
B. People don’t have time to think about religion – if you’re busy more hours a day than there is day, every day or at least Monday through Friday, than having the reflective time to sit down and think about religion isn’t something you have time to do.
Which is a shame, because the busier you are, and the more relentlessly engaged you are with rushing around and attending to life in its thisliness and thattitude, the more you need that reflective time.
Which thought can be filed under “do as I say, not as I do.” You can’t miss it, it’s the biggest file in the cabinet.
To talk of what we do not know and what no one living has experienced is speculation. Most such speculation is based on our extremely limited personal experience; as Paul said, we are seeing through a glass, dimly, at best.
One of my favorite quotes about eternal life, is from Frederick Buechner’s little gem of wisdom, Wishful Thinking: A Theological ABC. He said,
“We think of Eternal Life, if we think of it at all, as what happens when life ends. We would do better to think of it as what happens when life begins.”
A delightful book about heaven was written some years ago by Carolyn and Edmund Sheehan, titled “Magnifi-cat.” The plot revolves around a cat that arrives at the Pearly Gates crowned with the halo of a great saint, but the key point of the book is its vision of heaven as the opportunity we have waited all our lives for, to fully realize our potential for service empowered by full communion with God through God’s Holy Spirit.
Going further with that concept, one of my favorite prayers for a deceased person is, “May he/she go from strength to strength in the life of perfect service.”
So for a dedicated librarian, heaven may provide the opportunity to enjoy all the wisdom and inspiration ever written and to enrich that enjoyment through sharing it universally.
My heaven is the love in my child’s eyes. The gentle touch of my lady when the day has gone bad. The rise of Creator’s day star to gift us with another day. Where I may do good or ill, to strive and win or fail and try again. To do it with some honor and not yield.
I need not look for tomorrow, for it never comes. Live your days, so you do not look back and find them empty. My regrets are merely shadows of what might have been, once upon a time.
As for those beloved and departed, see that red glow in the west at days end? There lies their camp, they await me there and will sing me home. All those who have gone before, they are not gone, I will see them again and I’ll wait patiently there with them too, in the good lands. Perhaps John Carter and Dejah Thoris, will see me there, and Manny O’hare, Star and Oscar, Rico, and the Star Guards, and all the others. They’ll be welcome in my camp, as will you my friends, no one leaves hungry. We will Sing!
Heaven is in your mind Will, I would not want yours.
PS A.E., my friend, it does not have to all get done today.
Remember, if you are feeling depressed or your self is suffering. It may not be you, it could be you really are surrounded by A**holes.
Thank you, John. It could not be said better or more truly.
Yakokee R.A., that means a lot that you would say that.
Edgar would be pleased with you, I think.
We’d probably have got on famously, perhaps I’ll see him too one day. He’ll probably be swapping tales w/ R.A.H.
Intellectually, I’ve always questioned the concept of heaven and hell. I still don’t believe hell. If heaven exist everyone goes, but it’s not always the heaven they expect. I.e. a klan member goes to heaven and everyone treats him nicely. Unfortunately for him, God and all the other members of his heaven are black. I guess that this is just my type of poetic justice.
BAHAHAHAHA! Can we send my sixth grade teacher to that heaven too???? Wooo!
LOL – yah those Taliban and the suicide bombers will get their 72 virgins, but they’ll be nuns with rulers and yardsticks!
One of my former library science instructors posted on her Facebook page a photo of 5 nuns holding machine guns with the caption:
Much to the terrorists’ surprise the virgins awaiting them in paradise were not quite what they expected.
It wouldn’t surprise me if they were carrying something a lot more threatening than mere rulers.
When I hear from those who are psychic mediums, they have always said that, besides those who cross over and reunite with family and friends, they also do things that either interest them or what would be activities that those among the living would do.
One example is that, on my mother’s birthday (March 2), there was a worldwide protest to call attention to global climate change; I wouldn’t be surprised if she were actively involved in that. On the anniversary of her passing (May 10), that was one of the days set aside for library advocacy in Washington, DC; I could also see her at something like that, since she always took my twin sister & I to Story Time at the public library when we were young (and she loved reading, especially true crime).
My one nephew, from a young age, has said that he could see those of my family who have passed on (e.g. my parents, grandparents). He doesn’t particulary like hanging out with my family too much since he has told his mother (my sister) her family is too big. I would think that plenty of my mother’s relatives always cram at my sister’s house whenever she has us over for parties or holidays. It also makes me wonder how many of my mother’s relatives who passed on decades before would gather at our house on the holidays (among the living, there were 9 of us at the time so it was already a crowded gathering to begin with).
I’d like to think, when we pass on, we’ll do the things that always interested us as well as things we didn’t get to do while we were alive. I’d like to think my mother is politically active.
Jeannine-
Not to get into it too much, because I don’t particularly like discussing it, but I understand where your *nephew* is coming from more than anyone will ever know.
I’m going with the Heaven as library model. It’s a matter of having all knowledge available, of lifting physical impediments and the veil of forgetfulness so that I will finally understand advanced mathematics, physics, and the inter-relationships of all things. I FEEL it now. I know it is there, but I don’t understand it. Then there’s the matter of the Akashic Records. The most complete library ever for it records our every deed and thought, dismal though that idea might be. I’m in my little Heaven today, surrounded by my 2,000 books. I figure they are going with me. Even if it’s in spirit, they will still be available to me, along with a lot more.
But it’s a double edged sword, a “grass is always greener” syndrome because once we get there, once we get over the shock, once we tire of watching the rationalists contort themselves into pretzels trying to explain how they can still be, in some sense, alive, we will be faced with the fact that although we are still cognizant, we’ve lost something dear.
We can think of oranges and strawberries, but we can’t actually smell them. We can think of symphonies, but we can’t actually hear them. We can think of a cold, frosty morning or the heat of the sun warming our faces on a hot summer day, the wind mussing our hair and flapping our clothing. We can even think of being with our loved one and how that feels. If you believe in Jesus, you’ll be greeted by him. If you believe in 72 black-eyed virgins, you’ll see them (though they may be pigs). But it’s all mental, much like a dream. We’re made of such thin stuff there of such a high vibration that we can’t actually DO anything but live in a flimsy fantasy of our own creation, not much more than an intelligent ball of light.
But there is a “system of expectations” there. I don’t know who made it up; I just know I don’t like him very much. It’s like The Matrix in some ways. It’s a game. We make models of railroads in this life, worlds in the next. Second Life. World of Warcraft. Why are we in a world of wars and discontent? Because we chose that game to be in, or it was chosen for us against our will. Who knows, exactly? Part of the game is that it is a mystery. We’re not allowed to know until it is over, perhaps not even then.
So we feel compelled and pushed, cajoled and manipulated into taking the plunge and coming down here only to forget everything we’ve ever learned and do it all over again. We think we have to prove that whatever we learned is now innate in order to advance to the next level of game play. We feel so compelled to smell the oranges again that we forgot the sickness, the pain, the heartache, the hardships, the evil that follows us into physical form. We must pay for our experience. Pain is the currency.
So we become an avatar for someone else manipulating us into “adventures” of his own choosing and amusement so that we suffer while he may live. It’s a betrayal, really. It’s a trap to which we have willingly consented at a cerebral level, not realizing, literally not real-izing until it is too late. We’ve been tricked yet again with the too-easy promise that next time we get to be in charge.
You’ll never catch me insisting my next interpretation is correct. If I actually told you why I think I’m right you would not believe me. I’ve tried; no one understands. People will believe anything, but when someone challenges it they will insist on a rational explanation. My reasoning is not rational; it’s personal. The Universe starts behind my eyes, not yours. That’s a much distilled answer. Chances are I’m wrong anyway. But….
We’ve had over 2,000 years to distort what Jesus said. Read “The Five Gospels” by Funk, et al of the Jesus Project to get an idea of the depth of the problem–technically. Most of those words in red probably should not be in red. The Fifth Gospel is Thomas where, much to the ire of the others, Jesus kissed Mary Magdalene on the mouth. Da Vinci Code, anyone?
My interpretation of what Jesus was saying was that he knew all this. He knew the whole thing was a sham, and he said to follow him because he could get you out of all this, this recurring never-ending cycle of a hamster on a spinning wheel to nowhere. It is all highly personal. TPTB (The Powers That Be) have never liked a personal explanation. They don’t want the individual to realize his own personal power. So shit happened, as usual. Nothing new there. TPTB won, got rid of Mary by marginalizing her, and turned the ship back on course to a male-dominated model. It’s all in the Gnostic Gospels, where power was not vested in the Church, but the person, but those were purged, burned, destroyed wherever they were found.
So yeah, Heaven is a kind of library, but you won’t want to stay there. You’ll run back here as fast as your ethereal feet will carry you. Welcome home.
mick–
…and yes, that’s a compliment.
Have I told you today that I like you as much as I like Johnny Cash on a foggy morning
Have you ever read “religious” text that talk about Jesus as an ill tempered imp who, like a superhero, decided to use his power for good instead of causing his teacher’s grief and pushing other small children off the rough. Good stuff.
rough=roof….got a little excited.
Aw, shucks, A.E. I do like Johnny Cash.
You know, ftd.com is out there just for folks like you two. I say go online and send each other a bouquet.
Well, actually, Mick should send A.E. the bouquet. A.E. can go on Amazon and send Mick a nice camo jacket and some ammo.
Except you probably can’t buy ammo on Amazon. The ATF guys probably put the kibosh on that.
Funny. The only thing I ever get sent is raspberries. Yum?
Ha, Joe. Actually, I don’t like getting flowers (with the exception of orchids). As far as sending ammo, you can’t send it through USPS (unless it is spent cartridges). If I remember correctly, it has to go through UPS or Fed/Ex, clearly marked “CARTRIDGES, SMALL ARMS” and “ORM-D”
But I could be wrong.
Make it orchids, Mick.
And I peg Mick as a Beretta 92FS guy, so you better make it a carton of 9×19 mm parabellum cartridges, A.E. Hand-delivered, I guess.
I also found camo formal wear here.
Gotta love the tuxedo jacket in mossy oak.
I buy 1000 rounds at a time. Yup, AE, it’s ORM-D. And the UPS guys hate it because each box is so heavy. “What have you got lead in there?” Well, yeah, as a matter of fact it IS lead. 9mm would be find, but I’m running low on .223, which is better for zombies.
Which is better for Zombies for .223/5.56 or a WSSM? And what ammo puts them down-baslistic tip, hollow tip, soft point….come on, man! I may need this to “get into heaven”????
Ok…have I sufficently scared everyone with my random knowledge of weaponry. Don’t worry; I’m not allowed to own them. However, if you think this is bad, you should hear me talk about the Franciscan throwing ax…mmmmm baby.
I’m thinking maybe a WSSM is marginally more powerful, but it’s also much more expensive. Being a frugal guy I would have to go for quantity as long as you don’t stoop so low as to get Russian steel jacket such as Wolf. The librarian in me rebels at all that dust. WSSM is also known as a “barrel buster” so considering that those zombies just keep coming, I’d go for hollow points which would do more damage by spreading out. On the other hand, maybe you would want to use FMJ so it would pass through the first zombie and get the next one, too. Kind of philosophical. And you’re scaring me. Maybe I should upgrade to a .308. And Joe, my Glock is just so I can get to the AR-15.
For the ammo virgins in the tavern… “FMJ” is “full metal jacket” and “WSSM” is “Winchester super short magnum.”
A lead bullet flattens and spreads out when it hits a target. This tends to maximize the damage to the target but also expends the kinetic energy of the bullet. Enclosing the bullet in a hard metal jacket retards the spreading effect, and thus the bullet retains more energy and — voilà — can pass through the first zombie into the second.
WSSM rounds were introduced as a way of giving smaller (.223 caliber) rounds more punch. The cartridge is designed in such a way as to accommodate more propellant, resulting in the bullet being expelled at a higher velocity. Critics of the technology claim that the higher muzzle velocities produce more wear on the barrel.
I think it is OK for librarians to know about firearms. I draw the line at having them heavily armed on a public desk, however.
The AR-15, or a Kalashnikov, may indeed be the best choice for the zombie apocalypse.
Wait a minute, the Franciscan throwing ax?
Is there a side to the good friars that I was unaware of??
R.A.-
It was called that because it was developed by the Frank. Usually it is simply called the Francisca or Francesca. It was the “national weapon” used in the early medieval period and possibly during Charlemagne’s reign. It’s believed to have been used by Germanic peoples and as far north as England.
Because of the curvature of it’s haft, it made it difficult to block. Not only that (and this is the part that makes me giggle), you can throw this ax at an angle to the ground, it will “bounce” or go up, and get your opponent in the legs. And even if you didn’t get your direct opponent in the legs, it would fly through the attacking crowd and hit someone. A “can’t miss” weapon if you know what to do with it.
Very interesting, A.E., thanks!
If there is any justice, heaven will be a place in which you can continue to engage in (quoting Richard Feynman) the pleasure of finding things out.
Most of the religious heavens seem to imply some sort of perfection — a place of completion, of everything having been answered. How boring! That is the description of hell, not heaven!
So, if there is any justice, heaven will actually be kind of like my current life, only with lots more time to spend finding things out.
The question is moot, of course, because there is absolutely no evidence that heaven exists. The only thing that truly bugs me about this is that I won’t be around to see how things turn out. Will sea levels really rise a meter? Where will digital and telecommunications tech be in a hundred years? Will there be serious life extension? (And thus more time for the pleasure of finding things out!)
Need I point out that libraries are places for finding things out?
We were given everything we need for this life. If we would just share and take care of each other we’d be ok. Not perfect, but better than we are now when there is such a gulf between the haves and have-nots.
I wonder if the Catholic church would let the organist play “Imagine” at my funeral?
Don’t worry about the afterlife. Live this one as if you do.
I am writing this before I read more than the first few posts. I don’t believe you work your way to heaven. I believe that believing that Jesus is God’s son and he gave his blood to obtain forgiveness for our sins is how you get to heaven. I have always asked, “How good do you have to be or how bad do you have to be” in order to go or not go to heaven?? It doesn’t make sense.
To make a statement about churches shrinking but people being more “spiritual”, I think that people are tired of the hypocrisy in a lot of churches. People want to have God in their lives, but not the religious do’s and don’ts.