answers

Do you believe in heaven? Do you have an idea of what it would be? Is it a celestial plane where we walk about, as we do here, but it's somehow just better? Something else?

Does heaven exist? No clue. If it does exist, do I know what I want it to be? You betcha. 

This isn't the first time I've thought, or even expressed, this idea, but it came to me again last night. I was watching History Detectives on PBS and they did a segment on Amelia Earhart. Though not the focus of the show, they did briefly address they mystery behind her disappearance. If I were to design some kind of afterlife, it would involve knowing the answers to such things.

There are just things out there that we don't or can't know. I want to know these answers. Perhaps that's why I went to graduate school... to find the answer to something. But despite anyone's motivation, perseverance or the resources available, we may never know the truth about some things. What happened to the Lost Colony? Amelia Earhart? Is there a Sasquatch? How did everything come to be? Why? How did the dinosaurs become extinct? What is jello?

So if there is some kind of consciousness past this life I want to have access to these answers. I don't want to be inundated with it all at the same time like some kind of floodgates opening, though. If your soul is really out there for all of eternity, why blow it all in the first few moments? Plus, that would be way too much to sort through. But if, like last night, I had a question, I want to the answers to be readily available. To just be there.

Another caveat (this is all quite complex): I only want answers to facts, not hypotheticals. I don't want it to become a big game of  Choose Your Own Adventure. What would have happened if I went to a different school? If I didn't break up with him? If I dyed my hair blue? If I liked tomatoes? That could drive a person crazy. No need to know what may have happened and potentially regret things.

But back to the point: I want answers. I want to know.