Confused about good and evil? Consider this modern cancellation of Heaven and Hell and see where it takes you.
The day before yesterday, my home water heater refused to wake up. I had been expecting this. I knew for a ‘fiction’ my hot showers were numbered because my late father ‘told’ me as much last month. In a dream, he placed two units—old and new—side-by-side and then just stood there practicing his ‘and-you-know-what-this-means’ look. He didn’t have to tell me the water heater on the left had outlived its warranty by half a dozen years. “It’s time,” he was telling without so much as a peep.
When I awoke, I picked out a replacement device, shopped for quotes, and proceeded to do exactly nothing else. If there is a heaven, perhaps its purpose depends on what we plan to do with the insights it pours down without our noticing.
Less ineffably, guess who’s taking a hot shower tonight?
When the King of Denmark imposed from the afterlife his ineffable will on his boy Hamlet, his sole purpose was to incite revenge against his killer. A self-centered vision? A cautionary tale? Was the late king’s rot in Hell that tiresome? If there is a hell, what useful purpose does it serve?
A friend of mine squeezes heaven for every possible perquisite. My favorite is the way she calls down angels from on high.
“These days I order them up by occupation. The other day I’m barreling down a tortuous switchback. And I’m like: I could use an extra driver down here! I know you’re sitting right next to me; and that you never sleep!“
While plenty of folks I know routinely call out for Hell. It’s never so that its occupants will render any kind of assistance. Who needs that? I mean, what would you ask in exchange for your soul? For all we know, stuck forever in a kind of double-bind dilemma, those same occupants might be happiest when hindering our journey in their direction. What does that even look like?
“If you want to be happy forever, start by spreading as much misery as you can muster?”
If you think there might be something to this Heaven and Hell business, try an easy-to-do at-home (or -work) experiment for, say, the rest of your life.
- If you would be happy, bring a bit of joy to everyone you meet and see where it leads both you and them.
- If misery is your thing, try your best to extend as much pain and suffering as you can to all around you.
Before correlating your results, repeat either Step 1 or Step 2—the data gets mucked up if you cross back and forth between the two—forever. My hunch is that you won’t have to wait for Heaven or Hell to discover that either path entered with full purpose of heart will make your particular wish come true.
This post is from a LinkedIn Newsletter called Human Changing. You can access the entire series here.
