The Great Divorce

This is a book by C S Lewis that you probably have to read a second time.  The book is allegorical but it certainly rings true to some extent for me.

I am grateful for the following summary of the book:

The recently dead get on a bus.  The first stop of the bus is heaven.  The story follows all the 'ghosts' as they get off the bus.  Each of the 'ghosts' has an angel or two that are assigned to them, to try and coax them into heaven.  They can converse with each other too.  Not all want to get off the bus, of course, even though the angels are trying to get them to.  In fact there are mountains in the distance and 'heaven' doesn't seem much to look at from this point.  As they get off the bus the ghosts often complain about their inability to step on the grass.  They are see-through at this point, without much substance.  Some are of less substance than others.  Some of them perceive or proclaim that the grass is without substance, not them, and they complain about heaven not being much to look at, and they may try to go back to the bus demanding to go on.  The bus is never going to go on, however, as this is the only stop.

However, if they were to continue toward the mountains and away from the bus, they would 'thicken' more in substance, and they would see and feel more and more of heaven.  The story is ingenious as it depicts each 'ghosts' choice and why/how they make it, as well as the angel's urgings as they try to reason with them and coax these recent dead to obey the divine directive to keep moving toward the mountains.  All of them have excess baggage of some kind, a belief, an abnormal love, even a demon, and many other things that would keep them back.  These things they need to shed in order to go on.

If the 'ghosts' continue toward heaven, they continue to come closer and closer together, just as they come closer to God.  Eventually, they would end up in a unified bustling fellowship with each other as well as with God.  But as for hell, as they disobey the divine directive, they grow further and further apart, each consumed by his or her own belief system or false loves or pride.  If they were to meet they would just fight with each other in strife and hatred, so they move on, insisting that all is right with them and none is right with their surroundings or with those other 'ghosts' they grow to despise.  As they separate, they end up in a hell of their own making, in isolation, further and further away from anything good and away from God.

The story can be seen as a creative depiction of pride verses humility, where people are liable to end up in their own little world, insisting that they are right while they despise their brothers and sisters for how they are "wrong" - self-righteous arrogance!

***

Life is a journey - sooner or later we have to leave behind all the unnecessary baggage.
God is not limited by time or space.
Life is not like a river - but like a tree.  There are frequent forks - at each we have to make a decision.  The fruit appears at the end of the branches - some better than others!

If branches are not bearing fruit we may need to go back and try again!  Maybe some of us will be drawn back and then asked to take others with us!
This life as a training ground - death as a transition!

It seems hopeless trying to wake some people up!
Truth is dangerous - uncomfortable - not always wanted - some prefer to be enslaved!

People look for recognition and appreciation - quarrelling pushes people further and further apart - people expect their rights!

To what extent should honest opinions be expressed when others have good reasons to disagree?  There are real spiritual fears!

The Catch 22 - the recognition that we have to let go of the past - and that our assumed talents may be as nothing!  The land, not of questions, but of answers - instead of factual inquisitiveness and religious speculation!

What would you like to do if you had a choice?

The damned have holidays - excursions - if they want to - most don't!  For those who leave the grey town it won't have been hell.  The valley of the shadow of life (heaven) or the valley of the shadow of death (hell)?

The agony of suffering will be turned to glory - the past begins to change so that forgiven sins and remembered sorrows take on the quality of heaven - heaven as a reality - hell as a state of mind?  For some it seems better to reign in hell than serve in heaven!  There is always something they insist on keeping even at the price of misery - just like sulking kids.  There is a need to admit that we have all been mistaken and that in this life we cannot know all the answers.

There are so many subtle snares (deceptions).  Some are so concerned with proving the existence of God; some with spreading Christianity; while some are so busy serving that they lose their love for the poor!
Life moves on - what we were is no longer important.
Some live in the past as if it's all they had.  It's what they chose to have - the wrong way to deal with sorrow!
It's when we stop pretending that we begin to live.
It's hard to say (but cruel not to say it?) - there is much to be learned from sorrow!
Everything is good when it looks to God and bad when it turns from him.

We need to understand the real meaning of love - instead of the craving to be loved - or loving others for our own sake.  It has been said that when we have no 'need' for one another - full - strong - not lonely - we can begin to love truly.  How many of us ever reach that stage?

When people are unhappy this can be a spur that encourages joy that helps to overcome the misery.  Many use it the other way round - choosing misery and holding joy up to ransom by pity (. . .instead of saying sorry you went and sulked in the attic, because sooner or later one of your sisters would give in!).

The light of heaven can swallow up the darkness, but a person's darkness cannot infect the light of heaven.  Love and joy are so much stronger than frowns and sighs!  Can the demands of the loveless and self-imprisoned be allowed to veto heaven?  Joy must prevail!  The tyranny of evil cannot be imposed on the good?

Consider hell - the infinite empty town - smaller than a pebble.  All the loneliness, anger, hatred, envies and itchings are as nothing.
Good beats down incessantly on the damned but they cannot receive it.  Their fists are clenched; their teeth are clenched; their eyes are tight shut.  First they will not, in the end they cannot, open their hands for gifts, or their mouth for food, or their eyes to see!