December 20 2006

Text By Greg Fallis

There is a story told about a Turkish philosopher who was taken to heaven against his will. It wasn't that he minded dying, he told the gatekeeper to heaven. It wasn't that he wanted to extend his life. Nor was he saying he didn't deserve to be in heaven. It was that he objected to the very idea of heaven. Heaven, he said, was elitist. He objected to any community that was restricted.

So he escaped. He dug a tunnel to hell, which was more democratic and would accept anybody. He pulled himself out of the tunnel, into a fiery and malodorous world of sharp, twisted metal and populated with miserable souls who howled and tore at their clothing. Though hell was cruel and grotesque, though it was filled with noxious smells and vile beings, the philosopher made himself a home there. He understood that he could change nothing about hell, but still he talked to the people, he lighted candles against the dark, he burned incense against the stink. And so he spent eternity in hell.

The gatekeeper asked God why such a good man was permitted to leave heaven. He hasn't, he was told. For some people, heaven is in the struggle.