If heaven is real, or if something like it is real, some dimension or existence that we came from to experience this, whether it's a simulation or something we can't comprehend, I think the underlying truth to this existence is that grief and joy as experiences are of equal value. Happiness is not a state, it's a reaction; the joy of hiking up and down a mountain and then stopping in a diner for a greasy fried dinner is exponentially greater than sitting around in a state of purgatory with all your needs met and eating the same dinner. Happiness and sadness are linked to the expression of physiological karma, dopaminergic and serotonergic catharsis. We evolved from an existence of endless highs and lows, horrible traumas and blissful gezelligheid in rapid succession and our needs still reflect this.
Religions like Catholicism and Islam internalize this concept in fasting and the celebrations around the breaking of the fast. I think this world is meant to brutalize and sadistically torture us such that we can experience the nirvana that exists in between. So that as souls we can sit around in the afterlife going, "Dog, I carried around a machine gun mowing down 1,000 Japanese on Guadalcanal, got a medal of honor for it, married the love of my life, spent 2 months banging her on a potato farm, CAME BACK into the Pacific war, and got blown up by a fucking cannon while leading a platoon of marines and tanks to destroy a pillbox and overrun Iwo Jima. By the way she never fucking remarried."
If there is something after death, I think the more grief we experience in this life the more we learn as a soul, the greater that transition will feel. I guess all this to say, I hope that shower felt good. |
