i had time to read...

a couple of weekends ago we had a yard sale at my house to raise money for our friends traci and adam's adoption. the yard sale was harper's dream come true. she kept going inside and getting money and coming outside and haggling with traci until the price was right. she drives a tough bargain. last time we had a yard sale harper purchased a pen that was not quite up to her standard, so she came outside and asked for her money back.
she was not the only one that found a few things that became a treasure to their new owner. i found several books that no bookshelf should be without. the list includes several steinbeck novels, a couple toni morrison novels, and of course a few faulkner gems. what library could be considered complete without as i lay dying or light in august? southern fiction at its finest.
several of my students recommended albom's novel, the five people you meet in heaven, so when i saw the book for fifty cents i decided i would see what stirred up the buzz from high school students. i started reading the novel on monday and finished it by thursday afternoon and i feel depressed.
i was surprised that the girls that recommended this book to me did because their normal books of choice are any sparks' novels (which i also picked up from the yard sale) that are full of emotional manipulations. this fable transcended the normal perception of death and heaven and took on an entirely different view of what to expect after our vapor of a life expires. and i didn't like it.
sure, the concept of our lives are all intertwined is beautiful and believable, but i like to believe that heaven is without pain or hurt. i also like to believe that we will not be reliving one moment in our life for eternity...how could i choose just one moment to be my heaven??? the more i thought about how i did not like albom's perspective of heaven, the more i realized how opinionated i am about a subject of which i know nothing.
in spite of this fact, i do know that albom's heaven is missing something that i know will be there and including something that i know will not be there. God and self. albom's heaven is noticeably deficient of God. despite the mention of God on occasion, his presence is noticeably absent. what is heaven if it is not the presence of God? albom's heaven seems to put a disproportionate emphasis on self. God is missing and instead heaven is focused on the individual. heaven is apparently created to serve us. albom's heaven seemed as empty as earth.
i, personally, am looking for heaven to be absent of anything to do with me. i do not want a self-serving heaven. i do not want to speak of God as a distant stranger, but i want to look God in the face and ask my own questions.
i enjoyed reading his novel and appreciate all the thinking that it caused me to do. albom's perspective is a refreshingly new one and i admittedly was forced to think about a subject that brings about crazy emotions...however, i am ever resting on the knowledge that heaven transcends that capacity of our own thoughts...