Hevaen and Hell

No, this won't be a deeply theological or philosophical piece, just something that found it's way into my Junk Mail that hit a chord.

A holy man was having a conversation with the Lord one and said, "Lord, I would like to know what Heaven and Hell are like. " The Lord led the holy man to two doors. He opened one of the doors and the holy man looked in.

In the middle of the room was a large round table. In the middle of the table was a large pot of stew which smelled delicious and made the holy man's mouth water. The people sitting around the table were thin and sickly. They appeared to be famished. They were holding spoons with very long handles that were strapped to their arms and each found it possible to reach into the pot of stew and take a spoonful, but because the handle was longer than their arms, they could not get the spoons back into their mouths. The holy man shuddered at the sight of their misery and suffering. The Lord said, "You have seen Hell."

They went to the next room and opened the door. It was exactly the same as the first one. There was the large round table with the large pot of stew which made the holy man's mouth water. The people were equipped with the same long-handled spoons, but here the people were well nourished and plump, laughing and talking.

The holy man said, "I don't understand." " It is simple" said the Lord, "it requires but one skill. You see, they have learned to feed each other, while the greedy think only of themselves."

I've been reading a lot of Medieval romance novels lately and I guess the contrast between then and now that doesn't put modern days in a positive light is that back then people worked together a lot more. I guess it may have mostly been because if they didn't work together they wouldn't survive but from that cooperation I'm sure there were instances where people helped each other and worked together just because of a genuine desire to do so. Today we live in a world - at least in the West - where each individual or family is more likely to be an island onto themselves.

Especially here in America, you can live somewhere and never know your neighbours name. It's bad but I only met my neighbours wife maybe 3 weeks ago and I've been here since June. (Mind you we live in split building type housing.) And I remember at our last base in similar housing, I'd mistakenly received my neighbour's mail and when I went to carry it over and introduce myself in the same go, the man cracked the screen door, mumbled hello, snatched the letter and shut the door in my face.

Such is life I guess, but it's so sad.