I think that by posting it I have. Besides, if I were to physically mail it, I wouldn't know whether to send it to heaven or hell. If anyone has an address for either of those places, let me know.
i was reading simone weil recently and this was a quote that really has stuck with me and that your letter reminds me of:
"losing somebody: one suffers because the person who has died, the absent one has become imaginary, but the desire one has for him is not imaginary. one must go to the depths of oneself to where desire which is not imaginary lives...the presence of the person lost is imaginary, but the absence is real enough; it is from now on that person's way of appearing." (Weil, 1952)
"Hell", as we know it, the burning lake of fire where bad people go, never existed in the ancient Jewish world or in the ancient Hebrew scriptures.
Instead, the Old Testament/Torah refers only to Sheol, a sort of grey gloomy afterworld, a bit like Purgatory, where we all wait around for a while before going to Heaven.
Post-Jesus versions of Christianity more or less invented the Hell we know, using one small bit of quote, written down 60 years after Jesus' death, in which he was telling a PARABLE-- an invented, non-real literary device he used to get his points across. (The most famous being the parable of The Good Samaritan).
In this parable, he mentioned a rich man who had no compassion for th poor who lived outside his gate, and so was punished in the afterlife.
Jesus himself never mentioned Hell at any other point, ever. Nor did he use that word.
The apostles, many of whom never knew Jesus first hand, constructed the notion of Hell that was modified further by later permutations of Christianity.
All that is to say that, if there is a Heaven, or a happy conscious afterlife, I like to believe that all those we have loved would be there.
Not in some boogeyman hell that people invented to control other people.
***
After I read this post, I took a much-needed nap, and slept for 20 minutes.
During that time, I had a dream that me and Knack were wrestling, and he had me pinned on the kitchen counter, and as we laughed and laughed and laughed as he started to squeeze down on my heart with his right hand, and then we kept laughing and laughing and, in my dream, i lapsed into unconsciousness and thought: "wow, this is neat, i'm losing consciousness".
and so was my word verification:yemqhsas....is it me or are these things getting harder?
Yes, this letter was designed as a bit of a tear jerker, for me, and for my brother. I forget who encouraged me to write him a letter. I thought of doing it, but I was always against it because it seemed silly. But I wrote it and it fell into a sketchbook, so I was able to let it age a little while. When I found it the other day it set me thinking about him, and about the letter in general. I'm glad I was able to share this with everyone but I guess I better throw it in the post. what was that address again? :) thanks people.
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8 comments:
Send it.
I think that by posting it I have. Besides, if I were to physically mail it, I wouldn't know whether to send it to heaven or hell. If anyone has an address for either of those places, let me know.
4555 St. Peter's Gate
Afterlife Place
B1W G0D
Well, there you have it.
I would put it in a bottle, in a large body of water. Guaranteed delivery.
do you have to make me weep?
i was reading simone weil recently and this was a quote that really has stuck with me and that your letter reminds me of:
"losing somebody: one suffers because the person who has died, the absent one has become imaginary, but the desire one has for him is not imaginary. one must go to the depths of oneself to where desire which is not imaginary lives...the presence of the person lost is imaginary, but the absence is real enough; it is from now on that person's way of appearing." (Weil, 1952)
Thanks for sharing this. I'm glad you did.
Now.
To get all theological.
"Hell", as we know it, the burning lake of fire where bad people go, never existed in the ancient Jewish world or in the ancient Hebrew scriptures.
Instead, the Old Testament/Torah refers only to Sheol, a sort of grey gloomy afterworld, a bit like Purgatory, where we all wait around for a while before going to Heaven.
Post-Jesus versions of Christianity more or less invented the Hell we know, using one small bit of quote, written down 60 years after Jesus' death, in which he was telling a PARABLE-- an invented, non-real literary device he used to get his points across. (The most famous being the parable of The Good Samaritan).
In this parable, he mentioned a rich man who had no compassion for th poor who lived outside his gate, and so was punished in the afterlife.
Jesus himself never mentioned Hell at any other point, ever. Nor did he use that word.
The apostles, many of whom never knew Jesus first hand, constructed the notion of Hell that was modified further by later permutations of Christianity.
All that is to say that, if there is a Heaven, or a happy conscious afterlife, I like to believe that all those we have loved would be there.
Not in some boogeyman hell that people invented to control other people.
***
After I read this post, I took a much-needed nap, and slept for 20 minutes.
During that time, I had a dream that me and Knack were wrestling, and he had me pinned on the kitchen counter, and as we laughed and laughed and laughed as he started to squeeze down on my heart with his right hand, and then we kept laughing and laughing and, in my dream, i lapsed into unconsciousness and thought: "wow, this is neat, i'm losing consciousness".
And then I woke up.
that's incredible.
and so was my word verification:yemqhsas....is it me or are these things getting harder?
Yes, this letter was designed as a bit of a tear jerker, for me, and for my brother. I forget who encouraged me to write him a letter. I thought of doing it, but I was always against it because it seemed silly. But I wrote it and it fell into a sketchbook, so I was able to let it age a little while. When I found it the other day it set me thinking about him, and about the letter in general. I'm glad I was able to share this with everyone but I guess I better throw it in the post. what was that address again? :) thanks people.
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