The Afterlife

In the last month there have been three major deaths in my life. As a result I’ve been thinking about what happens after you die. There are a lot of theories, but does anyone really know? Sure, a lot of people say they know, but they can’t all know if they’re all saying different things. No one can prove it, but many believe so strongly that they’re willing to fight to the death over it. This in turn only allows the losers to find out.
We’ve got the Christians, Muslims and Jews who all believe in Heaven but kill each other about it because they don’t agree on which prophet to believe. But the fact is that Abraham, Moses, Jesus, and Mohammed were all saying almost the same thing, just the details were a little different. Then we’ve got the Buddhists and Hindus believing in reincarnation. At least they don’t fight about it though because if you’re going to be continuously coming back to the world you want to make it more beautiful. (Sorry for the oversimplification, but if I get into the details of all the major religions this will turn into a book instead of a blog.)
I’ve been lucky in life to be able to live and study with people from many different religions. I have to say a bit of what everyone said to me made a little sense and I began to think maybe they’re all right! But, maybe they all only possess a piece of the puzzle. Now for the first time in history with modern travel, the printing press and the internet we can begin putting the puzzle pieces together. Maybe there is a Heaven and yet we still reincarnate.
I’m going to combine two major schools of thought and propose a theory. What if when we die we go to Heaven, but only if we are truly pure and close to God, having reached a heightened state of awareness. And if you die and you’re not quite there yet, then you are reincarnated in order to learn the lessons you need to become pure enough to pass through the pearly gates. Most of us are then reincarnated over and over until we achieve enough inward development that we are freed from the cycle and able to join God…or maybe it’s that we truly realize in our hearts that we have been with God the whole time.
But what is heaven? Is it a place in the sky where streets are paved with gold? Is it a mindset that we are able to achieve here on earth? Maybe heaven and Hell already exist on earth and you chose where you live (most likely some place in between the two) by the way you perceive the world.
I’d like to hear some other people’s views on the subject. Feel free to write back and let me know…even if you don’t agree with anything I’ve just said.

I left my geography class and began the long decent down the stairs towards the library. The sky was blue, birds were chirping and the sun tickled my face with its magical touch. It had been over a week since I had gotten a good dose of sun so I decided to take a moment and sit in the garden to admire the view while I absorbed some much needed vitamin D. My head was still ringing with facts from class. I finished reading a textbook that was far scarier than any horror movie I had ever seen. The book was titled Natural Capitalism and was packed full of facts about the current state of our world. Facts like; in the last thirty years we have used more than half of our world’s natural resources, there is a swirling garbage heap in the middle of the Pacific Ocean that is larger than the state of Texas, and the average American creates one million pounds of garbage per person per year.
I sat in the garden watching poi surface every once and a while and I pondered their small world. I noticed how large the fish are for the little pond. With all of them defecating every day, the pond should be uninhabitable, but the poi are fine. The water is still clean enough to support them. Why? Because unlike the waste we produce as humans, the waste produced by the poi isn’t actually waste. It contains no toxins and therefore it is able to remain within the food chain and become food for another organism in the pond. Nature has figured out the perfect closed loop cycle to the keep the environment within the pond balanced. Within nature there is no waste! I began to think if only man could rejoin the cycle and eliminate waste we could live in harmony with nature once again.
But would it be possible to eliminate waste while continuing to develop our technological world? If we could take the toxins out of the things we produce than they would remain in the food chain and would eventually be food for another living being, be it a plant, worm or slug. Is it possible to make plastic without toxins? Maybe I don’t really know. They make biodegradable plastic grocery bags. Maybe in a few years they’ll make biodegradable water bottles. I began to think about what the future is going to bring.
Suddenly I could hear live music coming from the direction of the library. I got up and began walking towards it. I was still thinking about the future. If all goes well I’ll be alive for another fifty or sixty years. I began to think about the changes the world will go through during my lifetime. Would I live to see a day in which man rejoined the closed loop, waste free cycle of nature?

The Open Mic

My girlfriend and I walked up the steps to the campus pub. Chunky guitar rhythms and melodic vocals reverberated out of the crowded pub in sonic waves. A couple of girls were standing in the rain, surrounded in a thick haze. A familiar skunky odor danced through the air and tickled my nostrils. Maya turned to me, “smells good.” We laughed and opened the door. A wall of music hit me and a playful sense of freedom settled over me.
I scanned the room quickly. There were two musicians on stage. A tall thin young man with dark hair coaxed playful rhythms out of his guitar while he sang. His friend sat beside him and pounded a drum. Energy vibrated around the room. Students were everywhere. A large group sat on soft chairs talking and laughing. More stood on the dance floor watching the musicians. Another group surrounded the pool table.
Maya spotted a couple friends so we began to weave our way through the crowd towards them. We flopped onto chairs beside them. My friend slapped me on the back and we shook hands and began talking. A few minutes later, the craving for a beer began to take hold and I noticed that the line at the bar was short. I got up and stood in line. The two musicians thanked the crowd and got off the stage. A man with shaggy blonde hair and a lightly scruffy face took the staged armed with a dark guitar. He had big smile on his face. I heard a voice and my attention was drawn back to the bar. I ordered a pint of Vancouver Island lager and handed the bartender some money.
The guitar player made a joke and a few people started to laugh. Most people were too involved in their own conversations to notice. He exploded into a Jack Johnson song and people started cheering. His rhythms pulsated through-out the bar. I picked up my beer and walked over to where my friends were sitting. I sat down next to my friend. A huge grin split his face in two.
This was my first time to the open mic in years and things have changed. I had been to an open mic on campus a couple years ago, but there wasn't many people so I never came back. Now the music is great and the pub is packed. I'll be back next Thursday for sure, and next week I'll bring my guitar!