The Five People You Meet in Heaven — Part 1
First book of the year 2020 and I am glad I chose this. I have only got through 20% of it, and yet it has seemed to be a great read, full of insights and lessons, and a perfect start for a new year.
The story is about Eddie’s journey in the afterlife, right after he died a tragic death, on his birthday nonetheless. Quite shocking to start from the end, cause death is normally the end of the story, but here it’s just the beginning, and the context for things to start unfolding. And the writer made it very clear, by mentioning his death and counting it down from the first few pages of the book himself.
It’s the story about death and the afterlife, yet it has every bit of life in it that you can expect. And the lessons from it are very capable for living a good life, one that you will not regret when the inevitable comes your way. And since I have just finished the first lesson only, let’s jump right to it.
“There is no random act. Everyone is connected in one way or another. Everything you do has the potential to alter someone’s life totally. There are no strangers, just family you have yet to come to know.”
“Life and death are connected. They are two sides of a whole. There is no life without death, and death breeds life. They are balancing each other.”
That is very true indeed. The first one is a classic, and you can find it in many other places. “We are all connected in the great circle of life” — Lion King. “No life is more valuable than another, we are all equal. A stranger to you is someone’s brother and husband and father and lover.” — The Song of Achilles. “We are all part of the universe, and the universe lives in us” — Astrophysics for People in a Hurry. And the second one is even more classic, it traces back to the origin of time and space, of the universe itself, and is the center of everything in life that we know of. It’s a philosophy that is true by nature, and the cornerstone of all religions in the world. Therefore, it’s great to be reminded about it again, in the context of this book about an old man’s death and what it means to his strangers.