The Fly Translation and Enduring Memory
This morning, my scripture reading was Amos 8. I went through it, and came across Amos 8:3:
As I said to Sarah Canuck, when I looked at it, I immediately thought to myself that it reminded me of Ralph Kramden from The Honeymooners. So, looking at it through that lens...
I rule.
The other thing that Sarah Canuck and I talked about was memory in Heaven. A few of you readers out there know Professor Augustus, and have kept track as I've noted the decline in health of his wife. She was diagnosed with lung cancer (I'm pretty sure that she wasn't ever a smoker) in mid-December, and had declined quickly. She died early Friday morning, and as unfortunate as it is for me to have to say it, it was past time for her to go. She'd been in enough pain in the last few weeks that she'd been on a pretty continuous morphine drip. It was past time.
I told Sarah Canuck that I was glad that she wasn't in pain anymore, then said jokingly that if the following line was true...
... then my major reservation about Mrs. Augustus' arrival in Heaven is that this woman, who has apparently sung my praises far and wide, will now know the horrible things that I've done.
Actually, though, I don't believe this. Isaiah 65:17 says:
Initially, when I learned of this verse back when I was about fifteen, it was fairly disturbing. Father Time, who is sort of nominally kind of Buddhist, educated me about the Tibetan Buddhist view of attachment; so there are at least some humans out there who have allegedly overcome their attachment to their fellow humans.
Most people, on the other hand, value their relationships with other people, or with pets, or whatever. Now, an unhealthy fixation on objects and possessions is generally bad, but a strong emphasis on relationships with other people is good, right? For example, my relationship with Dr. and Mrs. Augustus has shaped who I am today, and it's shaped it for the better. The same goes with my friendships with Father Time, or Friar Dave, Sarah Canuck, April, Mo-Licious, and a whole host of other people I could name. Even folks like Lycan Thrope, whose real name I don't even know, have had a positive impact on my life in one way or another. The bottom line is that it makes me uncomfortable to think about living out the rest of eternity with no memory of the forces, factors, and folks who forged my identity. And, since I don't believe that we're all just going to be genderless, identity-free clones when we get to Heaven, this takes a bit of mental wrangling.
What it comes down to for me, I think, is this: while I believe that we will retain individuality, uniqueness, and identity when we get to Heaven, I also believe that we will be in a state without pain or suffering. What's the defining factor of our terrestrial existence when compared with what we understand and expect from our state of being in Heaven? The defining difference is pain. I expect that when we get to Heaven, we will have no more need to endure pain. Lewis points out that pain has certain redemptive and purifying aspects to it; since we will no longer need any form of redemption or purification once we get to Heaven. And in fact, specific memories of the initial existence would only seem to remind us of the pain we endured. And, as a result, it seems unnecessary to me to remember specific details about the initial existence, even if we consider those details to be crucial due to our present understanding of life, the universe, and everything.
At the end of the day, what it takes for me to believe it is faith: faith that God's wisdom exceeds my own, and faith that God's plan is better than my own. Since I know these things already about a number of other things, both related and unrelated, it's not such a big jump for my faith to extend to this issue.
Thus saith the Fly.
"In that day," declares the Sovereign LORD, "the songs in the temple will turn to wailing. Many, many bodies—flung everywhere! Silence!"
As I said to Sarah Canuck, when I looked at it, I immediately thought to myself that it reminded me of Ralph Kramden from The Honeymooners. So, looking at it through that lens...
And the Sovereign LORD said, "One of these days, Israel! BAM! Right to the moon!"
I rule.
The other thing that Sarah Canuck and I talked about was memory in Heaven. A few of you readers out there know Professor Augustus, and have kept track as I've noted the decline in health of his wife. She was diagnosed with lung cancer (I'm pretty sure that she wasn't ever a smoker) in mid-December, and had declined quickly. She died early Friday morning, and as unfortunate as it is for me to have to say it, it was past time for her to go. She'd been in enough pain in the last few weeks that she'd been on a pretty continuous morphine drip. It was past time.
I told Sarah Canuck that I was glad that she wasn't in pain anymore, then said jokingly that if the following line was true...
Your exploits, no matter how inane, are well documented in heaven.
- Chris Rock as Rufus the Apostle, Dogma, 1999
... then my major reservation about Mrs. Augustus' arrival in Heaven is that this woman, who has apparently sung my praises far and wide, will now know the horrible things that I've done.
Actually, though, I don't believe this. Isaiah 65:17 says:
"Behold, I will create new heavens and a new earth. The former things will not be remembered, nor will they come to mind.["]
Initially, when I learned of this verse back when I was about fifteen, it was fairly disturbing. Father Time, who is sort of nominally kind of Buddhist, educated me about the Tibetan Buddhist view of attachment; so there are at least some humans out there who have allegedly overcome their attachment to their fellow humans.
Most people, on the other hand, value their relationships with other people, or with pets, or whatever. Now, an unhealthy fixation on objects and possessions is generally bad, but a strong emphasis on relationships with other people is good, right? For example, my relationship with Dr. and Mrs. Augustus has shaped who I am today, and it's shaped it for the better. The same goes with my friendships with Father Time, or Friar Dave, Sarah Canuck, April, Mo-Licious, and a whole host of other people I could name. Even folks like Lycan Thrope, whose real name I don't even know, have had a positive impact on my life in one way or another. The bottom line is that it makes me uncomfortable to think about living out the rest of eternity with no memory of the forces, factors, and folks who forged my identity. And, since I don't believe that we're all just going to be genderless, identity-free clones when we get to Heaven, this takes a bit of mental wrangling.
What it comes down to for me, I think, is this: while I believe that we will retain individuality, uniqueness, and identity when we get to Heaven, I also believe that we will be in a state without pain or suffering. What's the defining factor of our terrestrial existence when compared with what we understand and expect from our state of being in Heaven? The defining difference is pain. I expect that when we get to Heaven, we will have no more need to endure pain. Lewis points out that pain has certain redemptive and purifying aspects to it; since we will no longer need any form of redemption or purification once we get to Heaven. And in fact, specific memories of the initial existence would only seem to remind us of the pain we endured. And, as a result, it seems unnecessary to me to remember specific details about the initial existence, even if we consider those details to be crucial due to our present understanding of life, the universe, and everything.
At the end of the day, what it takes for me to believe it is faith: faith that God's wisdom exceeds my own, and faith that God's plan is better than my own. Since I know these things already about a number of other things, both related and unrelated, it's not such a big jump for my faith to extend to this issue.
Thus saith the Fly.
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