‘Funny though that at Christmastime we seem more inclined to make ours a life of Hell rather than one of Heaven.’
I’VE been having these discussions with relations and friends about hell and heaven and there have been many conflicting opinions on these two “destinations.”
Some insist they do exist, even if they don’t have proof of that existence. Their proof is their faith, which my rational mind has a hard time accepting. But this forum of friends is so sure heaven and hell exist and they know where they intend to end up when the day comes.
With the boring people! Ha-ha-ha.
But there are those like me who think otherwise. For me, at least heaven and hell are not some final destinations we are all bound to end up at depending on whether we were naughty or nice not just during the holiday season but throughout our lives. Instead, they’re actually here and now – the kind of state one can create for one’s self and others. All of us, at any given opportunity, can make someone else’s life a life in heaven or a life in hell.
For me, this idea is more powerful because I can make it happen. I don’t have to rely on a belief in an afterlife destination because what I believe in can turn out to be untrue later on – just ask the Incas and the Mayans and the Greeks and Egyptians and all those ancient civilizations that had their own faith structure that are today surviving only in history books and in shelves in museums.
Funny though that at Christmastime we seem more inclined to make ours a life of Hell rather than one of Heaven.
Metro Manila’s traffic is the best “proof of purchase.”
For the nth time this season, I drove from BGC through McKinley Road intending to cross EDSA and drive into the Makati business district. That meant, first and foremost, navigating the traffic congestion on McKinley, especially the eastward route from Makati into BGC. On normal days, the congestion is bad; these days it’s worse. And the presence of undisciplined motorcyclists makes it even more hellish. These guys love to counter flow, endangering themselves and the onrushing traffic – but the hell, do they care?
If you accost them for their behavior, they’ll shout back at you and call you arrogant just because you drive a car.
But that’s not bad enough.
When you get to the intersection where McKinley crosses EDSA and becomes Ayala Avenue, that’s where hell is most real. It’s where traffic jams happen, simply because vehicles are caught inside the yellow box when the traffic light turns red, leaving them stranded there and blocking traffic that is supposed to cross the intersection.
But why are they there? In their simple minds, they crossed into the intersection when the light was green. And green means go. So they did. Never mind if there was already a traffic buildup on the other side of the intersection and chances were high that they wouldn’t be able to clear the intersection for crossing traffic to pass.
“The light was green” was sufficient justification. And it flows so naturally out of our mouths.
So traffic builds up. Lights change and no one moves. Soon, motorists start to honk their horns.
No one is supposed to be caught within the yellow boxes. Why else did we paint them there? But where are the enforcers to enforce the regulations? Maybe gone a-caroling themselves.
This is but one example. A simple one. Shows us how we by our own actions create hell on earth for others as well as for ourselves.
Hell exists, and we make it exist by our deeds, even words. Not even a million “Hail Marys” will shut down Hell if creating it comes naturally to us!
