The Aluminum Bat

For years we had fun together, 
Hitting balls as far as we could, 
My swing graceful like Griffey's, 
Bending you to my will, conducting 
Your arc through space like a maestro. 
 
Now I hold you with a grip even firmer, 
This time swinging you into the wood, 
Shedding every deranged thought 
In my bloated head, sedating every 
Spark of anger my delirium has fused. 
 
The poor tree also bears the punishment, 
Its bruise getting bigger with each whack, 
The letters on your barrel, once as legible 
As the face of a youth, smearing into blue, 
Fading back into the memories we shared. 
 
It's a curious axiom, I struggle to surmise 
Why we always take out our pain on things 
Weaker than ourselves, and the ones who hurt us. 
You were innocent, like I was, and the tree, 
Wishing you'd been wooden, like he. 

Heaven and Hell

Heaven and Hell are only states of mind.  They don't physically exist as places of reward and punishment in the Judeo-Christian sense.  The idea of sinners being punished eternally is only a concept used by those with authority to keep rebellion at bay, and by extension keeping their power.  Law and order are the real winners of this concept. 

The relentless threat of damnation in the Bible has been used to pacify a wide range of people, including most of the indigenous in lands that Europeans once colonized.  Despite the use of “eternity” as a sentence in some religions, the U.S. law system never uses this strong word when sentences are cast, though some do last longer than a lifetime.  The judgment of the Judeo-Christian God, thankfully, is outside our legal concept of justice.  That way, at least some of us get a second chance.  

Hell only exists as a figurative place where the mind is tormented by its actions and desires, whether it be from shame, guilt, envy, etc.  Emotional pain can be just as bad as physical pain, if not worse since it can last longer.  Many people have sins that will haunt them for the rest of their lives, so let's hope one lifetime is enough to learn from them.  Others aren't so lucky.  Only the truly damned will keep making the same mistakes over and over, which can seem eternal since they never quit the habits that brought them back to Earth.    

In the east, religions like Buddhism teach that reincarnation will happen if a person has not learned their life lessons.  They will keep getting sent back to Earth until they do, which may seem like a more subtle demonstration of God’s judgment.  Otherwise, there would be no point to morality at all.  Essentially this idea paints Earth as the real Hell since most of us were apparently sent back to learn the lessons we didn’t in our previous lives.  

I don't think it’s a stretch to say that Earth also has portals to heaven.  Just as hell is an emotional state of mind, heaven is a place in the mind that makes you feel so euphoric that it's indescribable.  And like hell, the reality of heaven is relative to the believer.  People who don't value religious euphoria may find heaven in being with their loved ones, listening to music, traveling, or creating art.  I feel a tiny bit of heaven's reach when I do all these things.  I don't believe in the popular fantasy that the righteous get to see those pearly gates on clouds, inviting them into the land of angels.  Maybe some will if they believe in it strongly enough.  

When I die, if it is truly heaven I'm going to, I would like to travel the universe and see the sites, with some super cosmic music giving me an eargasm.  And I’d like to reunite with my family after I reach the edge of the universe, before being sent back to learn the lessons I failed. 

What is God? A Definition for Everyone

I was sitting on the porch with my friend when out popped a question I've been asking myself a lot lately: What is God?  The question unsettled him; he wouldn't talk about it.  So, I kept it to myself, and haven't asked anyone else.  Other than the religious, people seem to be afraid of this most important question.  

I never took the idea of a Judeo-Christian God seriously.  A literal being who resides in heaven, passes judgment, and intervenes in our lives neither appeals to me nor makes logical sense.  To believe in angels, demons, and everything in between; all the miracles Jesus performed, and the stories filled with supernatural events; to take all this literally is almost ridiculous.  I emphatically reject this version of God, this humanized, Earth-centric, overblown vanity project we've created to help ourselves feel important.  

More interesting to me is the idea of God being a collective consciousness that permeates the universe.  It creates things through natural laws and passes "judgment" through karma- the tendency for moral actions to reciprocate themselves, like the way physical ones do by way of Newton's Third Law (for every action there’s an equal and opposite reaction).  Yes, even mental actions can have equal and opposite reactions, leading to consequences.  These are less rigidly defined than physical ones, but they are part of the same principle.  

I like the way Neale Donald Walsh explained it in Conversations with God.  God is everything.  All religions seek to explain it using different ways.  It communicates with us through thoughts and feelings.  It has no form, sex, or shape, but exists in everything we can sense.  This is a God that loves us unconditionally, like our parents, and unlike fear-based, judgmental ones.  If God is everything, it is thought and emotion as well: everything we've ever experienced, painted by the hues of perception.  Since we can access these, we are able to communicate with some of the many pieces that make up the infinite range of what God is.  We do this every day, and we don't even realize it.