After You've Gone

I was brought up by agnostics—at least that is what my parents wanted to believe that they were. I believe that they were a lot closer to atheism than agnosticism. But they did send me to Sunday School, and went on a couple of brief church-attending binges themselves. My stepmother would encourage me to believe in something bigger than myself, whatever that meant, but I was not prepared to worship a railroad locomotive.

I asked her once about afterlife. I was about twelve. She said that people lived on in the memories of those who survived them. A person’s reputation, her influence on the world, was her legacy and her afterlife. I found that unsatisfying.

However, I would move Heaven and Earth, if I could, to avoid an afterlife like Richard Nixon’s. Apparently my mother’s teaching stuck. It matters very much what sort of reputation I leave behind. The world is full of people who do not believe it matters. In death, the world does not respect their memories.

Mathematicians and physicists have satisfied themselves that reality consists of ten dimensions, not four. That is reason enough for me to suspect that there is more to this business of living than meets our worldly eye. We read the accounts of people who have experienced near-death, and some of them write of a truly horrifying afterlife of, for example, existing forever alone in a blank gray hall. Do we believe it? I don’t know, but if there is an after-life, I want to spend it in a happier place than that.

My own experiences have turned me into a believer of sorts. Too much really compelling stuff has happened to me for me to dismiss.

But I don’t believe we are to do the right thing out of fear of eternal punishment, nor out of expectation of some everlasting treat. We are to do right out of love for right action.

What does all this have to do with Briggs Road? I think you know. I try not to imagine torment in store for our persecutors, but their pleasure is most implausible.  They may expect extinction, and they may get it.

But I am not really concerned with the afterlife of people who damage the lives of others. There is nothing I or anyone else can possibly say to turn them from their worldly pursuits. The person I am hoping to inspire is you, and all I dare allow myself to anticipate are the tiniest of actions.

1. Spread the word about this blog.

2. Leave a comment at this blog, especially if you have encouragement or information.

There are much more significant things you can do, though these involve more effort. You could, for example, write to any government official on whose role you wish to comment or of whom you wish to urge action.

“First they came for the communists, and I did not speak out—
because I was not a communist;
Then they came for the socialists, and I did not speak out—
because I was not a socialist;
Then they came for the trade unionists, and I did not speak out—
because I was not a trade unionist;
Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out—
because I was not a Jew;
Then they came for me—
and there was no one left to speak out for me.”

Martin Niemöller 1892-1984