On the undesirability of "heaven"
12/03/2015
This has nothing to do with the pros and cons of religion. I was just thinking the other day how I can sometimes let it bother me that I have things in my mind that I know haven't been done; those things of which you say "I must get that done", then feel guilty when they remain undone.
I wondered what would happen if I found I had actually done ALL those things.
This is a subject which touches on the very roots of what it means to be alive, and human.
I wondered what would happen if I found I had actually done ALL those things.
This is a subject which touches on the very roots of what it means to be alive, and human.
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Consider for a moment the type of advertisement for domestic products which purports to show the satisfactory outcome for purchasers.
There is the clichéed shot of the (generally male) customer reclining relaxedly on sofa or in armchair, perhaps reading contentedly, or smiling at his smart phone or laptop, while a proprietary onlooker (generally female) beams down a with a gaze of admiring fulfillment at his evident comfort and bliss. Surrounding this heavenly tableux, we are generally presented with a scene of aspirational taste and tidiness, with neatly arranged furniture, generic ornaments, and a total absence of any evidence of activity, use, or personality. (It is perhaps evidence of the unreality of such a scene, that an image search for "husband armchair wife standing" brings up the highest percentage of agency stock shots I have ever encountered while image searching.) I don't know about anyone else, but I have always thought these scenes represented a kind of static sterility, far from the ideal of domestic life most people aspire to, in that it is not life, but an undead moment cannibalising past events and future hopes to add significance to a non-event. The situation of having "done everything", has a similarity to this. It is similarly an end-point, supposedly desirable, and involves no action.
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The definition of "life", according to Dictionary.com, reads "the condition that distinguishes organisms from inorganic objects and dead organisms, being manifested by growth through metabolism, reproduction, and the power of adaptation to environment through changes originating internally."
Note my italics. It is a fundamental property of life that it involves change. Without change you are not alive, you are inert, you are a rock.
Led Zeppelin conclude their song "Stairway to Heaven" with the lines: -
"When all are one and one is all
To be a rock and not to roll."
Therein lies my point: that notions of "heaven" involve a necessary and unavoidable association of perfection with stasis and death.
After all, can perfection be changed and still remain perfect? Surely, by definition, perfection cannot be changed. Either if it can, it wasn't really perfect, or any change will result in the loss of the state of perfection. Allowing multiple states qualifying as perfect seems to dissolve the notion.
The very word perfection has come from a root meaning related to the end of action: -
1250-1300; < Latin perfectus, past participle of perficere to finish, bring to completion ( per- per- + -fec-, combining form of facere to do1+ -tus past participle suffix)
We are thus presented with a situation where we must conclude that "heaven" is not a desirable concept at all, but one with connotations and consequences of inertia, stasis, boredom and death.
Note my italics. It is a fundamental property of life that it involves change. Without change you are not alive, you are inert, you are a rock.
Led Zeppelin conclude their song "Stairway to Heaven" with the lines: -
"When all are one and one is all
To be a rock and not to roll."
Therein lies my point: that notions of "heaven" involve a necessary and unavoidable association of perfection with stasis and death.
After all, can perfection be changed and still remain perfect? Surely, by definition, perfection cannot be changed. Either if it can, it wasn't really perfect, or any change will result in the loss of the state of perfection. Allowing multiple states qualifying as perfect seems to dissolve the notion.
The very word perfection has come from a root meaning related to the end of action: -
1250-1300; < Latin perfectus, past participle of perficere to finish, bring to completion ( per- per- + -fec-, combining form of facere to do1+ -tus past participle suffix)
We are thus presented with a situation where we must conclude that "heaven" is not a desirable concept at all, but one with connotations and consequences of inertia, stasis, boredom and death.
However, we can continue with our lives hopefully, comforted not by the anticipation of some future heavenly state, but by the notion that our lives must necessarily involve imperfection, and must necessarily never be complete.
Nevertheless, we must also strive to combat imperfection, for that is what it is to be alive; a neverending struggle against chaos, the opposite of heaven, and an equally undesirable state of too much change.
Nevertheless, we must also strive to combat imperfection, for that is what it is to be alive; a neverending struggle against chaos, the opposite of heaven, and an equally undesirable state of too much change.
I felt this song from an LP record I own, Talking Heads - Fear of Music Sire SRK 6076 (1979) was definitely appropriate.
Lyric writer David Byrne has added what I felt at the time to be a sarcastic slant to the subject.
Lyric writer David Byrne has added what I felt at the time to be a sarcastic slant to the subject.
Everyone is trying to get to the bar.
The name of the bar, the bar is called Heaven.
The band in Heaven plays my favorite song.
They play it once again, they play it all night long.
Heaven is a place where nothing ever happens.
Heaven is a place where nothing ever happens.
There is a party, everyone is there.
Everyone will leave at exactly the same time.
Its hard to imagine that nothing at all
Could be so exciting, could be so much fun.
Heaven is a place where nothing ever happens.
Heaven is a place where nothing ever happens.
When this kiss is over it will start again.
It will not be any different, it will be exactly the same.
It's hard to imagine that nothing at all
Could be so exciting, could be so much fun.
Heaven is a place where nothing ever happens.
Heaven is a place where nothing ever happens.
The name of the bar, the bar is called Heaven.
The band in Heaven plays my favorite song.
They play it once again, they play it all night long.
Heaven is a place where nothing ever happens.
Heaven is a place where nothing ever happens.
There is a party, everyone is there.
Everyone will leave at exactly the same time.
Its hard to imagine that nothing at all
Could be so exciting, could be so much fun.
Heaven is a place where nothing ever happens.
Heaven is a place where nothing ever happens.
When this kiss is over it will start again.
It will not be any different, it will be exactly the same.
It's hard to imagine that nothing at all
Could be so exciting, could be so much fun.
Heaven is a place where nothing ever happens.
Heaven is a place where nothing ever happens.