Wake-up Pages: Jel Went Camping

Monday, March 16, 2015

Today's Wake-up visitor is Jel.

J: It's short for Jelicle Cat. My mom was a TS Elliot fan.
Me: How can I help?
J: I'm feeling strange. 
Me: Ill?
J: No. Not ill, not tired, not hungry, not weak, not in pain.
M: Sounds pretty good. 
J: But I'm not used to not feeling something unpleasant. 
M: I think unpleasantness is mainly a feature of being alive. Which, evidently, you are not.
J: That would explain a lot. I thought I would live through it.
M: Illness?
J: Camping trip. I went along to be a good sport. The kids and Bill love camping. I love a fire in the fireplace inside the house.
M: So what happened? 
J: I think it was a snake. I didn't see it. I was too busy watching for bears.
When I was young my dad took us kids camping. Mom stayed home because she was too pregnant. I wish I had thought of that. 
M: So you know you're dead? 
J: As the proverbial door nail.
M: So why are you still here?
J: Beats me. Am I supposed to go someplace?
M: I'll call Ben to tell you.
B: Hi Jel. I'm Ben.
J: I'm dead.
B: Yeah, me too. But you're really not getting the most out of it that you could.
J: I didn't know there was anything to get out of being dead. 
B: This is just the beginning of everything that happens hereafter.
J: Oh. That word actually means something? 
B: Sure does. 
J: It never made much sense to me. "Here" seems like a space/geography/ location kind of word and "after" seems like a time kind of word.
B: That's a clue right there to how different the Hereafter is from the 3D world where people try to separate time and space. 
J: So there's a place where time and space are the same thing?
B: Yes! And even better: Neither one of them exists at all!
J: But if that is true everything would happen at once. 
B: Yes! You can have all your birthday parties at once.
J: In the same place?
B: You can even have all the places in the same place if you want to.
J: How would you keep track of them?
B: You don't have to. You aren't limited to being aware of one time or place because you are outside of your 3D body. That's what it does, you know. It limits the amount of reality you can focus on.
J: You mean I wouldn't have to choose between going to my grandma's 80th birthday party and going to the Bee Gees concert?
B: Nope. You just focus on where you want to be. 
J: Awesome. I'm ready to see that. It's my kind of non-place.
B: All right then. I'll just drive you over in my Aston Martin.
J: Wait!
B: What?
J: I want to go back and give that snake a big hug.
B: Ha! You can do that in the TSP. And wait til you find out who that snake really is. Uh uh. Not telling.