December 21, 2005
-
Heaven
Now that I have welcomed my first subscriber, I would like to begin to share some thoughts on something that has been on my mind for the past few months, but finally made it’s way into my personal journal in a double essay between yesterday morning and this morning. I’m now going to discuss a few of my thoughts about Heaven.
Last night there was a special on ABC by Barbara Walters that went into some of the many viewpoints about heaven. There were views put forward by Evangelical leaders, by Islamic leaders(which was very interesting actually), by various Buddhist monks(and Richard ‘first knight’ Gere) and even some point of views from Athiests about how neither heaven nor hell exist at all. It was a very very intriguing documentary to say the least.
You see I did not know anything about it before 9 o clock when I was browsing for something to replace the loss of The Amazing Race(Go Lindzes! Who Dey!). I had written a full handful of pages just that morning about heaven when all of a sudden ‘Tonight a special report by Barbara Walters….’ That was a pretty sweet coincidence. I knew right away I’d not only be writing a whole nother essay this morning, but that I’d also share a little bit of my thoughts here for all to see. Some of you may disagree and thats perfectly alright. Share your thoughts just as I have shared mine.
What I think is central to existence in heaven is happiness. Whether merit plays a part in how happy our afterlife will be, I do not know. I do believe that those who try to live their lives for the purpose of increasing not just their own level of happiness, but also that of the people around them. I also think that those who live an entirely selfless existence will reap far more rewards once they have moved onto the next level.
Once we are there, I think we will find that Heaven is not a specific place in the physical realm, but rather close to what we experience in a dream. The physical world exists, but only through our perceptions(shout out to George Berkeley). In our dreams, we have no notion of time, and I believe the same is true for heaven. Time does not exist. This is a very good thing because I’d really rather not get bored for all eternity. One of the funniest far sides ever was of a man sitting on a cloud in the middle of the sky all by himself saying ‘Wish I brought a magazine’. I think it is very pertinent don’t you?
One of my other favorite far sides depicts a bunch of flies on and around a giant bowl of mashed potatoes. The caption below simply says ‘fly heaven’. I think it’s great. I also think he is on to something. The flies get a giant bowl of potatoes why? Because it is what would make them happy. I find myself thinking that when we go to heaven, the ‘world’ around us will be chosen by us. Not really consciously though, because I think that we will find ourselves living the rest of eternity in the place where we were happiest on Earth. Think to yourself, if you could exist in one moment of time, one place in time for all eternity, where would you go? That is where I think the best of us will go when our time here is done.
Although I vascillated quite a bit over this decision today during work, I will share with you where my place would be. To those of you who have known me for a long time, you may have already guessed where it would be. Well besides in the arms of Keira Knightley, though that would be second. Maybe the second half of eternity I will spend with her!
! No actually it would be at Camp Otterbein. I went there from when I was in 3rd grade(1991?) to the Summer after graduation(2000). It was there that I was happy and it was there that I was free. Overall I have come to realize that I have lived a very well-to-do life despite what previous(as in 2001, 1999, and so forth) versions of myself would tell you. I am 24 and am doing well, much better in fact than many people in the world. However I have gone through some hardships and whenever I think of an emotional retreat where I could regroup to face the next battle, I think of my time spent at Camp Otterbein. I met some great people there(Andrew, Red, Cleo the ferret, Steph, Michael) and also some great girls(Rachel from 1996, Dawn from 1997, Laura from 1998 and the girl who changed the course of my life – Vanessa from 2000). I believe I was comfortable and open with all of them as a result of being away from some of my troubles at home. Otterbein provided an atmosphere of peace to me.
There is one specific moment I wish to share and then this massive post will close. The one moment in my life I can remember having no cognitive dissonance whatsoever. The one moment where my phsycial, mental and spiritual self all felt as one. It was during the 1999 game of capture the flag(at 2 AM) when I was playing defense for a little while. There was an immense amount of fog and very little moon. This left me in the middle of the back end of the field with about a ten foot ring of visibility around me. I kept close enough to the front line to be able to see the shadows of those who were guarding it. It was the most surreal setting and yet, it felt like I was seeing into my own soul. Here I had always felt like the shadow amongst everyone else, and now everyone was a shadow. ‘We all are one’ as the song goes on my cd Celtic Woman. It was one of the few times that I felt akin to all those who exist around me. For once everyone was a shadow, and everyone was equal. When all you can see is a shadow, there is no room for materialism, to say nothing of the physical world which many of us perceive to be the most important one. What was most important to me in that ring of fog was the realization that ‘Hey, we are all the same here’. To me that is how I would like to feel in heaven and I have a feeling that when I get there, I will find myself in that ring of fog, seeing everyone as a shadow just like me for the rest of eternity.
That, my dear readers, would be heaven indeed. Thank you for reading and I hope you have a pleasant day.
-Shadowrunner81(Dan)
Comments (5)
well i for one shall pray to God that my time in heaven will NOT be spent in a place that resembles where i am happiest on earth in a phyical sense or in a sense of a “place”… mainly for two reasons; 1: i have always hoped that heaven would be a place beyond our imagining. that it is better than anything we can think up. and at the same time, that it has things we can dream up that we never got to do here on earth. example: i would love to travel to every country, get to know different cultures, but it’s just not possible. not enough money for one, and not enough time in my life to properly do all the things i would want to do. plus, i think it would be really cool to have things like imaginary creatures and things like that. and the things that people would do if there were no limitations, like flying like birds. whatever a person’s heart desires or would desire if they knew such a thing existed or was possible. and that whole thing about mansions… yea, i would love to be living in a dream house… but i would also enjoy doing the decorating, if that makes any sense to you like it does to me. i know we have free will here, i guess it’s debatable whether or not we will need to make decisions when we get to heaven or not. but i do hope it is a world where we will have things to do, places to go, and things to see. things we never even considered.
and 2: the place that makes me happiest is not an actually place like a city or a beach or something. it’s with a person. but even then, i wouldn’t want to stay in that place for eternity, part of what makes this life enjoyable is the fact that it changes, that there are surprises and unexpected things happening at every turn. not that i don’t want to spend eternity with him, b/c i do, but i want to see my friends and family as well while i’m there. something about being stagnant in one place forever just seems… incorrect. but then, most of what we think & hope about heaven is speculation and opinion. we don’t really KNOW all that much about it and i think that’s the way God intended for it to be. so we have something unexpected to look forward to. so we could sit here and discuss what we think and believe and then hear someone else’s opinion and sit back and chew on it awhile and think, well, i guess that could be it too. thing is, we don’t really know what it will be like. for that reason i won’t debate it, but i will discuss it.
There is another far side that i’ve seen that has some old guys sitting somewhere down in hell and one looks over to the only one who isn’t doing anything and says, “oh, they’ll find something for you to do soon enough. me? i’m forever blowing bubbles.” kinda of goes along with the ‘i should have brought a magazine one.’ (and i have seen that one too, hehe)
sounds like that was a pretty interesting special with barbara…
question: did you, or did you not, go and search for pics on my site? if not, i can try and print something different to send in the christmas card i should have sent out already but haven’t b/c things have been crazy and i haven’t actually been able to mail anything yet, LoL… and i’m leaving before this comment becomes as long as your post, hehehe…(pray i can get everything done for christmas that i intended to do… it’s down to the wire for me and i’m not sure that i can get it all done…)
Very cool!
Maybe where we go when we die has to do with more than just happiness. Perhaps there isn’t one kind of heaven that simply sends us to where we were happiest or a place that replicates how we felt there(or with them). Maybe heaven itself is also yet to be determined. Wouldn’t it be cool if there was a unique heaven for everyone. Some people would want to go a hang out with friends and family and have a kind of eternal family/friend reunion. Some people would love to visit with Albert Einstein, Isaac Newton, Michaelangelo and countless others who have changed the course of human history. I think it would be cool to meet Joan of Arc(even if she doesn’t look as good as Leelee Sobieski). Then of course it would be possible to encounter a heaven not yet imagined, or not even imaginable. I don’t know if you were referring to unicorns and fairies when you mentioned unimaginable creatures, but I suppose not since you had to imagine them to think of them. Ok so either way, why not be able to encounter what could not be encountered on Earth? That would be a pretty weird heaven. I’m sure ducks wouldn’t show up since you would be a danger to them. The possibilities of heaven are limited only by the boundaries of imagination(shout out to Armin Van Buuren), so anything you or anyone else can think up….sure…why not?! Ha….Heaven is customizable. I hope you don’t have to pay extra…..
I did go and look for the pics and saw the ones either taken for Halloween or during your stay at the mental institution. As for sending something in the Christmas card, if you are able to send something recent that would be perfectly cool with me. If you get zapped by the computer trying to upload a bunch of times…don’t worry about it. Actually…if you get zapped and your hair goes all static-spikey…take a picture of that and send it!
so what did you think when you saw the pics? i mean, you waited all this time, (what has it been now, four years or so?) i hope it wasn’t disappointing.
did you go further back? there are more than just the halloween ones. if i don’t send you a pic with the card, i’ll try and send one later, i’ve been a little stressed over trying to get everything done and so if i don’t get to that, i will eventually, also the cards will arrive after christmas. that’s my random confession for the day that i haven’t actually stuck them in the mail yet… need stamps or they will never get there. And yea, i sort of had unicorns and the like in my head when i said that. hehe, if my hair gets spiked by electricity, i will take a pic, just for you! *hug* merry christmas!
Well I wasn’t disappointed, I didn’t scream in terror, and didn’t mistake your real picture with the penguin one you use as an icon. That’s good! I thought of something when I saw it though, did you dress as a cat because of your name Gatina? Gato is spanish for cat afterall. Just wondered if there was a relation or if you just went ‘hmmm…cat ears would be cool….’.
yea, that was a big part of it, i have that name for a couple reasons… so i thought it would be a good idea, plus it didn’t cost very much to buy a tail and ears and wing it with the rest of it.