Photo courtesy of Pixabay<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>All mammals habituate to pleasure.\u00a0 No matter how much I love Rum Raisin ice-cream, after two tubs, the thought of it makes me want to throw up.\u00a0 In subsequent, time-spaced, binges, addicts need more and more of their drug-of-choice to reach the same level of a \u201chigh.\u201d\u00a0 It\u2019s literally wired into our neurotransmitters.\u00a0 The only two counter examples that I can think of are, dogs who want to play throw-and-fetch, and two-year-old humans who cry, \u201cDo it again!\u00a0 Do it again!!\u201d<\/p>\n
Even the dictator basking in the adulation of the sycophants needs to raise the accolade-bar higher and higher.\u00a0 There is a story told about Stalin that, after he had finished speeches to his inner circle, he expected longer and longer standing ovations; and each \u201cclapper\u201d was afraid to be the first person to sit down lest he be executed for disrespecting the leader.<\/p>\n
Closely related to the pleasure principle is the almost ecstatic relief we feel when a painful situation has finally ended: the toothache that almost drove me crazy is fixed; or the war that ravaged nations and led to horrific loss of life finally culminates in V-day celebrations.<\/p>\n
And yet, on the other side of the coin, we have very short memories when it comes to personal or societal pain.\u00a0 Otherwise how could a mother look forward eagerly to getting pregnant again?\u00a0 Or how could we vote for a party that we had dumped, for corruption and ineptitude, two elections ago?\u00a0 Or how can we be persuaded to enthusiastically embrace the next \u201cwar to end all wars.\u201d?<\/p>\n
Which brings me to heaven \u2013 the idea, I mean, not the state\/place.\u00a0 After some 1,000 years of waking up daily to blue skies, a warm shower, Rice Crispies and half-and-half, how does it feel to have to, once again, grab your harp or harmonica or banjo and music sheets, rush to the Aula Maxima, find your assigned spot amongst the infinite number of concentric circles of plush seats, ringed around the long-bearded old man in the center, seated between a good-looking 33-year-old with holes in his wrists and feet, on one side, and, on the other side, a large white dove?<\/p>\n
Isn\u2019t it beginning to get a little bit<\/u> boring?\u00a0 Just a tad?\u00a0 But you can\u2019t mention it to anybody because it seems sinful. So, boring and all as it may be, you try desperately not to think about the long, long, interminably-eternal future that stretches out ahead, because the alternative is worse: getting kicked out for ingratitude; and being sent down below where the sun don\u2019t never shine, you get blistering hot showers, you feed on lumpy porridge and sour milk, the musical instruments are all out of tune and, in place of the conductor and his baton, are ushers with pitchforks.\u00a0 So, you grin and bear it.<\/p>\n
If heaven, then, is about Love, it can\u2019t be about routine.\u00a0 Perhaps the subtlest form of love is creativity, the ability to bring into being that which is not-yet; the talent to imagine, with such focus, that your dreams get enfleshed.\u00a0 Maybe we get better and better at this over \u201ctime.\u201d\u00a0 So, good, in fact, that advanced souls create entire universes \u201cpeopled\u201d with heretofore non-existent life forms and events.\u00a0 Was St. Paul onto this when he said, \u201cEye has not seen nor ear heard, nor has it entered into the human heart, what things God has prepared for those who love Him.\u201d?<\/p>\n
What if this doesn\u2019t just mean that God is saying to each and every soul upon death, \u201cCome on up here; look what I\u2019ve created for you!\u201d and then gives you a grand tour of all of His pre-existing wonders for you to play with?\u00a0 What if the greatest gift of God\u2019s Love is to bestow on us the very ability to create, in Love?<\/p>\n
So, now, newly-arrived soul, what are you<\/u> going to create?\u00a0 Will your world<\/u> look like planet Earth?\u00a0 Or your cosmos<\/u> be similar to this universe?\u00a0 Will you be content with simply re-creating what you remember from here?\u00a0 Or will you break out and birth that which has never before been imagined?<\/p>\n
Will there be creatures in your dream?\u00a0 And how will they resemble or differ from Gaia\u2019s children?\u00a0 Will they be automatons, pre-programmed to act as the code dictates?\u00a0 Or will you risk giving them free will?\u00a0 Horribile visu, would you allow them to disobey<\/u> you?\u00a0 What if disobedience and \u201cevil\u201d were part of the training wheels needed in order for these \u201cchildren\u201d of yours to, finally, become like you \u2013 an unconditionally-loving creator?\u00a0 Would you have the patience or perspicacity to allow for that?<\/p>\n
Oh, one final question: is it possible that this here cosmos of ours is the work of such a student-soul, lovingly working elsewhere, under God\u2019s serene gaze?<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
What is heaven really about? The idea, I mean, not the state or place.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2524,"featured_media":1271,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[240,281,63,3,280,1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1270","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-creativity","category-habituation","category-heaven","category-love","category-pleasure-principle","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\n
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