In a recent interview, former President Jimmy Carter was asked if he believed in an afterlife. He said he did, but he didn’t know what it would look like.
Human history, through individuals and cultures, has imagined the afterlife in myriad ways as a sign of hope and reward. Common is the idea that the atoms and molecules of the burnt or decomposed self would be reconstituted in heaven to be reunited with reconstituted loved ones.
That’s not my vision. I imagine that my atoms and molecules will be dispersed over time and combined again and again with the atoms and molecules of others—maybe connecting as we never did in life. My atoms and molecules would be as eternal as the universe and as un-mine as I was un-mine in my humanity. I could become part of some new form of life, or a cloud, or something that extracts toxins from the earth, or a reconstituted other I failed to love in life.
How beautiful to imagine being part of the constant recycling and reconfiguring of our universe.
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