What Is and What Should Never Be

I saw something at the supermarket that I would like to share.  Actually it was in the supermarket parking lot, and I noticed it as I was making my way toward the door.

There, parked three spaces down from my car was a pickup truck.  It was an old pickup truck, that somebody had gotten a lot of use out of.  It had quite a few dents and dings, and the paint was faded and chipped in some places.  In others, it had been spray painted to kind of spruce it up a bit.  The licence plate was hanging at an angle, being held up by only one screw.  For that matter, the bumper was hanging kind of funny too.  The truck had a homemade camper shell, made of odd sized pieces of plywood cobbled together.

And if this were all I saw, I wouldn't be writing about it now.  I mean, I've driven my share of clunkers too.  But there was this word, sloppily painted on one of the larger pieces of plywood - a word and a phone number - that made me stop and stare, and let it all sink in.

"HANDYMAN"

Handyman.  And it made me think.  There are times when no advertising at all is better than advertising poorly.  He'd probably have better luck not advertising at all, waiting for someone to accidentally dial his number, and say, "Sorry, there's no Dorris at this number, but do you happen to need a handyman?  'Cause that's what I do." 

It's plain to me why he didn't have the funds to make his vehicle a little more presentable, and it left me feeling a little sad.  Mind you, I'm not the one to be throwing stones about someone's handyman skills.  While I consider myself highly intelligent and capable, my home repairs usually don't turn out quite the way I think they will.  I really could use a good handyman myself.  And, I'm sure the owner of that truck could use the business.  But, while it really shouldn't matter, I think I want one with better marketing skills.

The Hereafter

Most people follow whatever faith their parents, grandparents, and their grandparent's parents have chosen.  This wasn't good enough for me, though.  I tend to overthink things - kind of like a modern day Hamlet.  The problem is that there are simply too many choices.  And the price for choosing wrongly can be pretty severe.  I mean, if you don't choose the right religeon, AND often the right sub-sect of said religeon, it's off to eternal suffering you go.

Fire and brimstone.  Darkness.  The cold void of nothingness.  Mosquitos THIS BIG.  All of the socks you've ever lost, reeking with foot odor.  And a demon who gives you wedgies and plays Seasons In The Sun on your elastic waistband.  Forever.

At first glance, it may seem that the best choice is to choose the religeon that will deny you entrance to Heaven if you don't believe in their faith, and has the worst possible Hell.  You still have a chance with the more tolerant religeons of receiving eternal salvation, and you've also cleared yourself of the worst possible fate.

But, ask yourself this.  Do you really want to go to a Heaven that is run by a God so anal as to refuse entrance to the best of people, simply because they held a different belief?  I mean, with any religeon, there is a fair chunk of the world's population that will have never even heard of it, and another chunk that may have heard the name, but nothing of it's teachings.  If that God refuses entrance to Heaven to these people, imagine what other rules there are once you get there.

I think going to a Heaven of this sort would kind of be like moving into a home with a very strict home-owner's association.  No playing your harp after 8pm, and Heaven forbid you should leave it unattended on your cloud.  That would mean a write-up for sure.  Everyone would have to wear the same style robes, and they would probably take three hours to iron.  Halos would have to be polished until they glowed with at least 1400 lumens.  I think that this Heaven would look nice, but it would really suck to live there for eternity.

Like Hamlet, I have thought and thought about this and have decided, for the time being at least, not to decide.  This may throw me into some purgatory someday, but I think that if I just try to be the best person that I can be, do good as I see it, it will at least make my life on Earth more enjoyable.  And if I do make it into some Heaven someday, it will be one that I will feel good living in.