...thoughts during a lazy afternoon ride in DC Metro subway not too long ago... looking blankly at the dizzying Virginia scenery outside... meeting a friend not seen many moons ago... a meditative  simplifying ride...

                    The Either/Or

Downsize! Let go. All things. Get naked! Free your mind of all things that have been freakishly freaking your life. Less is more. Simplify.

There are only two choices at the end of  life for most of us as far as I know: go inside a box or go inside a jar. Either one does not ensure a place above. A place below? You can practically walk in.

St. Peter, divinely magical at the gates,  does not let you in with all the junk you had all your time on paradise earth. His is a different paradise: only you are allowed in having gone through a purification by fire, a redemptive purgatory or taken a straight nonstop trip to the gates of heaven having worn a triple halos all your life, you get a pass.

Satan on the other hand is diabolically magical! Yes he is at the gates as well waiting for you and your soul. In fact he wanted your soul so much more when you were roaming paradise earth  making sure you had enjoyed your time and partook in all the pleasures Earth had to offer, a garden of Eden in every street corner, without you knowing he already had you with all the adjunct and accessories that he made available for a good life on paradise earth. A world stage at your beck and call.  Ensuring you are damned! That you go heel clicking like Santa’s elves straight to the red carpet to Hell. He does a purgatory purification by fire as well a last minute enticing of your soul with more glitter gilded offerings than he gave you prior, an ace in his hell hole for all the greedy-want-it-all lost souls on earth, a stroke of genius doubly making sure all indeed are damned– Satanized straight one way to the dungeons.

There’s but one St Peter’s home an open sanctuary of the seven virtues and eternal divine happiness. Then there is Satan’s hell with all the seven deadly sins of eternal suffering.

This upon our exit from the stage we lived in called paradise earth. Either we sin or we don’t. Then again we grab life in the moment-a Carpe Diem.

                                ***

(c)NDR10.18.2022
Photo: online shutterstock images