I was chatting to the lady who held the key to the church where I reinstalled this monument which I had restored and we touched on the afterlife, probably because of the surroundings. Not to do so would have been a bit of an elephant in the room conversation. She came up with a personal observation which struck me as very un-Christian.
"I just cannot imagine all this..." (she swept her arm in an a wide arc before her which covered half the universe) "... ceases to exist just because we die. No more birds and flowers. No sunshine."
I had to stop and think about it before I could comment, and I have been thinking about it ever since. Was it as selfish as it sounded?
All I can think of is that she was imagining some sort of promised heaven following a well-lead life, but to think about it in this way makes the thinker the centre of the universe. She must think that she will take her personality with her when she goes. Maybe we are all the centre of the universe - including the flowers and birds.
I woke up about a week ago and had a mini revelation, but it was the sort of revelation which cannot be translated into words, especially on a Saturday morning.
It had something to do with how you remember feeling before you were born - before you were even conceived - and the difference between being unconscious and not existing at all.
There is an infinite amount of time at either end of our brief little spell on Earth - so infinite that it can hardly be called 'time' at all. We spend an average of three score years and ten trying to work it all out before we are thrown back into the pot which has no bottom. Most of the time I don't even bother to think about it, but just try to have as nice a time as possible in the allotted amount given to me.
The trouble with life on Earth is that we have to have the opposite of good times to know that we are having them at all.
Oh well, I had better get on with my charmed life. I am working all weekend, and still haven't been paid for the last job.
I did as a child, and I still do, savour those times that seem perfect, to remind myself of them when they're not. (it doesn't work, but what the hell)
ReplyDeleteWhen I savour those childhood times, it is usually triggered by green leaves in a forest, possibly with a stretch of quiet water (like The Silent Pool in Surrey). Very contemplative - healing, actually.
DeleteI've been thinking about this too. Especially when I see or read about shopping and things supposedly we need. Apart from food there is no point. Why bother with possessions? There is no point at all.
ReplyDeleteIt's funny you should say that. H.I. has about as many designer shoes as a president's wife, but last night bought a pair of Italian ones which she has been hankering for since she saw them in a London shop for £1500. They are brand new and cost £275. It makes her very happy indeed, and for that reason it is worth bothering with possessions. I do not go in for the current de-cluttering craze, which is why I like the Sir John Soames museum so much.
DeleteWhile it makes people happy I would not take it away from them. De-cluttering comes from within and I don't believe in anybody telling somebody else to do it.
DeleteIt keeps the house-clearance boys busy as well.
DeleteThe house-clearance business is busy when the people don't do it in their own lifetime and relatives call them in at death. At least that's how it is here.
DeleteOf course.
DeleteI just came back because it dawned on me whilst burning the chops that this is what you meant. But you got there first. Of course.
DeleteIt's not worth burning your chops over.
DeleteThat's how we eat.
DeleteOh yes. Black all the way through.
DeleteEvery life is so unique; it is blasphemy to tell someone what to do.
ReplyDeleteI sometimes think of all the spirits floating about, and wonder what makes one decide to go be a new baby. How much must one learn before deciding to stay behind.
We are all chips off the old block. I think we are just we are just God thinking out loud to itself.
DeleteI love your latest restoration ... I'm quite surprised that the church have the money for such things but I'm pleased they do.
ReplyDeleteYou've gone all deep and meaningful .... I prefer not to think about it.
I'm with H.I ..... I like a bit of frivolous spending ...... nobody needs any of these things but it makes us happy and there's nothing wrong with that now and again !! XXXX
That job was years ago.
DeleteMy mother's maiden name was Joan Fry
ReplyDeleteWhat is your favourite book and your favourite pet and your favourite colour? Thank you in anticipation.
DeleteAnd your PIN?
DeleteMmmm - thought a while aabout what the lady might have wanted to say. May it be that she meant: "I am not important at all. Creation is and wil be and remain even if mankind is erased." ? Might be?
ReplyDeleteAnd Tom: I love the Soames museum also oh so much!!!
I just don't know. I think she was maybe unwilling to let it all go. When my father was dying he said to me, "I will miss all you kids the most." !
DeleteI think that was the most touching thing I have ever heard ; I will miss you kids...he didn't think you would miss him? That lady you spoke to just gave word to something many people fear: that everything will stay the same when I am gone. Better then to think that it all goes when I go.
ReplyDeleteI am getting into a melancholy mood, I have spent almost 12 years in the same parish and 16 years in the village. I look at people, getting older and losing some of what they used to have. And I sit down and speak to people remembering mrs B that used to do this and mr L that used to make those. For a split second we stop and think with joy and sadness of people no longer with us. And then, everything goes on again. For some the memories will never fade, but mostly there are no visible traces of us when we are gone. That lady was for certain afraid of letting it go and perhaps afraid that nobody would notice much that she wasn't there anymore. I for one believe that the only one keeping count and checking up on our eternal life is God himself.
The point in all this is that everyone needs to be noticed in life and remembered in death.
I am not afraid to die but I am afraid to loose my dearests. I feel for all those poor people. I think we all do, there is no going around or escaping that horror of loosing someone. Makes one think.
Sorry Tom, this post was a real treat for a minister.
Thank you!!
All - as I am sure you know and I am sure I try to convince myself - will be well. I trust in God but I am not sure like him that much.
DeleteYes Tom, all will be well, and I trust in God too, but oh, until that moment, how much can we take?? That's when we have to believe that we are not just promised a bright future , through a horrible present on our own, we are also promised never to be abandoned "until the end of time". I like him more for that promise, actually!
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