On my first post from February 23, I don't think I represented the movie "What Dreams May Come" very well. What I like about its imaginary world is the way it posits an afterlife that seems less judgmental than most.
Most of the movie takes place in an afterlife world--it's neither the traditional heaven or the traditional hell. For one thing, movement between the nice parts and the awful parts is possible. For another thing, God (or any sort of authority figure) seems almost as absent as in our own world.
But what is most interesting to me is how this movie about the afterlife sidesteps an issue that has always troubled me: God the perfect judge. How do you reconcile God's perfect justice with God's loving mercy and the fact (in most afterlife scenarios) that everybody has to be assigned some place that is definite, fixed, and eternal? Which categories supercede others? Does my past as a murderer mean that I go with all the murderers, despite all my charity work with kids? Is there some perfect solution for distributing every person to an appropriate assignment, even with a more subtle system than the binary heaven or hell?
Well, says this movie, the assignment is simply that you, basically, continue to be who you were. If you were fixated on visual impressions, you'll have a beautiful afterlife. If you were a dog, heaven will have a lot of smells. And more to the point, if you surrounded yourself with people, you'll find heaven well populated. If you cut yourself off from people in this world, the afterlife will be lonely. Whether this feels like punishment or a blessing is open to interpretation.
This seems to (partially) get God off the hook for being arbitrary in judgment. You simply are punished or blessed with who you have proven yourself to be. This also leaves open the room for further improvement. Maybe there will be further levels later once you have gotten over the baggage from this existence (like in "Defending Your Life" or Hinduism).
Ultimately, this movie shows a vision of the afterlife as an exaggerated version of this life. Which is why I think it has much more to say about life now than about the future. You are in hell now if you make it so. You are in heaven now if you are truly connected with what is eternal. So why say anything at all about what dreams may come?
Today's lunch continued the leftover extravaganza. More reheated pork roast with the vegetables it came with and saltines. Diet coke to drink, and a peanut butter chocolate chip granola bar for dessert.
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4 comments:
I haven't seen the movie, so I might be making some wrong assumptions, but this sounds terribly depressing to me. What if your life on earth sucks and not by your own making? Would your life in the afterlife suck even more?
My idea of heaven that has been evolving is that in heaven all we will do is worship God. And every desire of our being will be to worship God. So we will be perfectly fulfilled.
For lunch (rather unfulfilling) I had a cheese sandwich on whole wheat bread, a pickle, and a glass of milk.
I agree. This movie's scheme is especially unfair to those lives were painful beyond their capacity to rise above the pain. Where I particularly feel frustrated by the film is its depiction of mental illness--the depressed lady whose kids died in a tragic car accident remains depressed and miserable in the afterlife.
What happened to redistributive justice? What about the great reversals promised in all those parables? I suppose that kind of reversal requires an arbitrary kind of God, making decisions rather than following rules.
My favorite idea of heaven is that we get to be who we really are, without masks and without fear. To be naked and unashamed. And we get to see everybody else for who they truly are, too. What is there to do? To get to know each other (and God) better. And to talk.
My lunch was a Lenten meal: Great Northern bean soup with lots of ham, saltines, corn bread, green bean salad, frog's eye salad(!), and water. I love eating beans.
Good grief, Sid. Where are you eating??? And what is frog's eye salad, dare I ask?
For breakfast I had half of a blueberry bagel and a cup of coffee. And so far I've managed to lose one of the two pounts I gained. I'm hoping for two more by Tuesday.
Ah, the glories of church potluck food. And I thought you ate BEAR--where's your sense of adventure?
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