Insignificance (Old blog reposted)

Have you ever had a time in your life where you felt like something horrible or absolutely awesome happened but later forgot about it or didn't think of it with the same intensity? Like making a high school sports team? Or dealing with an extremely embarassing moment you thought you'd never live down? Maybe an end to a relationship? There are all kinds of examples and I am willing to bet many of us have experienced this on some level more than once.

As Sharon Creech wrote in her book, "Walk Two Moons," (a book directed more towards middle school kids or younger but loved by me and read to my 4th graders at the end of every school year no matter what)...."In the course of a lifetime, what does it matter?" I started thinking about this and thought you could really get technical and step back REALLY far from, not only your life, but the lives of everyone on this planet and really think EVERYTHING that happens in this world means very little.

Couldn't you?

I mean even death and disease and genocide and murder and war and Mother Tereasa and Ghandi and Hitler and George Bush and marriage and love and sorrow and right or wrong of homosexuality or abortion or death penalty or gun control and you name it.

I thought once that there could be no heaven or hell because they are for eternity and the time we are on earth is such an infinitely small fraction of eternity that no matter how much bad or good you did, it couldn't justify eternity in either of those places. As bad as Hitler was and good as Mother Teresa was, does several decades deserve infinity in paradise or torcher? Really?

And can any of us common folk who flick people off or make someone feel bad or cheat someone out of some money really derserve hell? How about those of us who side more with goodness and help old ladies across the street, smile whenever we can, support people, give to the needy and all that? Do we really deserve eternal happiness for several decades of good deeds?

Really?

What do you think?