Thoughts on heaven.

[oak]

Friends, I hope we all live many happy decades in this life.

Eventually, I hope we all get to heaven and have a great time. Here are my thoughts, if I can create my own heaven:

Food 1

All food is ethically-sourced, and everyone can eat as much or as little as they like.

In practice: there's no GERD in heaven, so I can eat hummus with olive oil ten minutes before going to bed.

Sleep

Everyone sleeps happily in heaven.

In practice: there's no sleep apnea or nightmares.

Where to find me

I'll spend most of my time at the heaven-version of my undergrad institution, Kent State.

In practice: If time doesn't exist there, I'd like to spend several millennia in the library, just reading books.

Culture 1

I can hear this song for the first time again:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IGMabBGydC0&ab_channel=RustedRootVEVO

Rusted Root, "Send Me on My Way" (1995)

Who I want to see

I'll spend most of my time alone, but I'd like visits from my childhood Yorkies.

In practice: Everyone reading this is welcome to visit me at heaven-Kent. I hope to visit heaven-California, and heaven-New Zealand, if that is where my forum-friends choose to spend their time.

Prejudice

If there's bigotry, I'm not going.

In practice: I've seen enough of that in this lifetime.

Travel

I want to spend several hundred years just flying around the universe, and seeing distant stars and planets and such.

In practice: that would be cool.

The one assessment that matters

My brother, who died many years ago, could tell me if I was a good man or not.

In practice: In this life, I value many peoples' assessments of me; yet I want one the most: the one I can't get. At least in this lifetime.

Culture 2

I want to understand other cultures better.

Physical culture

I want to spend several thousand years studying martial arts.

Food 2

I want to be able to make really good bread, specifically naan.

[manuel_moe_g]

this is a very fine afterlife

...but don't wait until the afterlife to start having a happy & fulfilled life

you deserve a great life, leading into a great afterlife!

take care, Oak

[Mental Fairy]

heaven can only be a thought away. It doesn't have to be reached with passing from this life into another.

It can be in a bite of a meal, a hug, a sentence, a location, a smell or even in just being still. I don't think it is possible to live or be in a state of heaven at all times. If it is possible then how would one live with no comparison?

Heavenly moment can be fleeting or even have some form of longiverty.

I don't think i would like to have everything perfect all the time, even in afterlife. Got to have something to moan about!

However if we are to talk of a heaven i can only hope i get to pick who is in it, where the location is. But until then i wish to keep having my heavenly moments here on this troubled earth.....

Mine being, the feel of my cats paws creeping up my body on the bed as she then prepares to kneed her little paws on my chest, then lays down with such beautiful ease and places her paws on my chin. That moment is melts me into a heavenly state it makes me get teary.

To look up at the stars and the surrounding universe in the mornings with a hot coffee.

To hug my son and be hugged back.

To remember moments in great detail and relive them in my mind without distraction.

To hold a book

We don't get out of this life alive so make as much heaven happen as possible.

[oak]

Manuel Moe and Mental Fairy, my good friends: yes, I am in complete agreement for more heaven-on-earth moments!

I had one, this week, while listening to Led Zeppelin's "D'yer Maker": https://youtu.be/xje-1sw3T0s

A slightly different angle

Were I to be honest, I'd be very happy to have 50% less hell in my life.

Note that I'm not asking for (1) heaven on earth or (2) no hell. Just less hell.

I think, dear friends, is that I am burnt out due to an active, current, ongoing midlife crisis.

Said another way: while speculating/daydreaming on what I'd like heaven to be like is fine, the real value is making my current life less hellish.

I have very modest hopes for this life: going on a date, eating in a restaurant. Maybe a small, tiny, half-dead hope is all I need: it is still hope.

[oak]

Friends, I had another moment of "heaven on earth":

As I have for thirty years, I am listening to Tony Bennett's Unplugged album.

It reminds me that I am human.

The album is a murderer's row of The Great American Songbook, including the standard "They Can't Take That Away From Me".

I refer you to very special guest Elvis Costello's phrasing of "the way her smile just... beams..." at 2:14

https://youtu.be/x6uDp5lYPzs?t=107

Sometimes all this daily sorrow of life just doesn't matter. Maybe that's enough heaven for me.

[oak]

Thoughts on animals:

1. Much as I’d like a Yorkie in this life, it is not practical.

I hope in heaven I can have a Yorkie that never gets old or sick or has to suffer in any way.

2. I also want to eat lots and lots of pork in heaven.

I also want the pork to be produced basically magically: I want pigs to be happy in heaven.

Please note that I am serious about eating so much meat in heaven. I am also going to drink so much pop.

I might even play video games for a thousand years straight; and why not? We’re in heaven after all.

I will have all of you over for carnitas and burgers and roasts and so much bacon and all the Mexican Coca Cola you want. And there will be really good bbq sauce and excellent steak sauce and perfect sauerkraut.

And I’ll have jalapeños and serranos and habaneros and shishitos and cherry tomatoes and onions. You’ve never had such onions as I’ll be glad to generously share with you.

And nobody will have to go to work, or be sad, or be lonely, or have anxiety or depression or agoraphobia or PTSD, or have to hurry, or have dental pain, or wonder if they’re a good person, or be broke, or experience prejudice.

There won’t be any sleep apnea so everyone will wake up refreshed.

[Mental Fairy]

Oak your post brought tears to my eyes. I would be honoured to come visit you for fine food and pop in heaven. I love your wish of what heaven to be.

I would love to have my Mazie with me and Allie, she was before Mazie. I would love a huge library with a coffee shop in the middle. Curling staircases to levels of floors filled with beautiful books. Secret doors to beautiful rooms filled with pillows and soft furnishings.

I would eat food I’ve not been able to eat for years in fear of shitting myself. Ice cream, bread, nuts and seeds. Skins on my vegetables and fruit.

I would get to meet all of you and share our stories. There would be no need for cell phones and devices.

Gosh the list could keep going forever.

[oak]

Very good, Mental Fairy. If I get to heaven first, hopefully not for many happy decades yet for all of us, I will provide you with an infinite amount of Ben and Jerry’s peanut butter cup ice cream.

Friends, let me see if I can thread this needle:

In this life, I have no desire or interest in drinking any more alcohol. In fact, I have 15 years sober this time last month.

I think heaven, for me, would be having the ability to drink, if I wanted, without any consequences.

Truth be told, I wouldn’t give a care if I can’t drink in heaven, but I’d be super sad if I couldn’t enjoy candy, cheesecakes, and really good milkshakes.

Said another way: I’ve frequently, in this life, been forced to many horrible things I’d never consent to.

If there isn’t actual consent in heaven, then it won’t be heaven for me.

I want to be able to consent to drinking, even if I never get around to it, or care. I want to have the freedom to consent, if that makes sense.

[oak]

Having gotten turned on to the Grateful Dead lately, if I were in heaven later today, here’s what I’d want:

To have no place to have to go, to just have time.

I could groove to Jerry Garcia playing. I’d be enjoying pork tacos, and Mexican Coca Cola.

I’d also really be getting into line: in this life I’ve not enjoyed lime nearly enough.

After Jerry and the tacos, I’d go to my true home, a library.

Edit to add:

Truth be told, I’d trade all the music and food and even libraries for what I really want, here in this life: connection.

If you’ll allow me, sincerely, a moment of hyperbole, and self pity, though I stand by what I’m about to say:

I never had romantic young love as a young man. While I have some material resources, I am the poorest man on earth.

[manuel_moe_g]

Hi Oak

Yeah, I mourn the lack of young love, young romance

My time for it came and went

It will never be

Mourn it, choose a best realistic path for my present-day life, commit to that choice…

It sometimes feels empty, but I am not killing myself, so I do what I can with the cards dealt to me