It was an ordinary day for Duncan, one of the 18 billion souls on the planet Earth and off. A number deemed sufficient, but hard to hold when everyone always wanted more, "for my family." While DNA had proven that all of Homo sapiens were very much the same within one or two percentiles, squabbles continued over who was the best and who had the most as well as who was entitled to the most property--their piece of the Earth and beyond.
Duncan, like everyone else, wanted a family, an income, something useful to do with his life, security and good health. Also, like everyone else, Duncan went about securing these things in his own way, a term that had been commonly called "freedom" or "liberty" that enabled every individual to succeed or fail in whatever they endeavored to do. Success was always fleeting. Success often brought the need for more success, or the sense that one had not been successful enough. Duncan had been trying hard to achieve success for half of his life and still wasn't sure whether he had achieved it. This was a dilemma of humankind. Regardless of the amount of freedom one has and has achieved, it doesn't seem to be enough. Fear of having it taken away and the need to have more always creeps in with its attendant doubt.
For this day, Duncan was doing what he usually did. Nothing out of the ordinary, just fitting in. He was going through the motions of his routine and using his devices--conveniences--that technology afforded him to solve his everyday problems in ever more efficient and perfunctory ways. But it did not satisfy Duncan. Something yearned in Duncan for more or less. He couldn't put his finger on it. There was always more, but he did not know how to wrap his mind around it and stop wanting more. But everyone else was just like him. They couldn't read each other's minds so they wouldn't know that this little bit of urgency was driving everyone forward to a place they never could quite arrive at because they knew they would die. Duncan was going through the motions like everyone else, but were they the right ones? So, devoid of anything else, Duncan believed that he would go to a place called "Heaven" when he wore out this body. And he was wearing this body out way too fast for his liking, even with all the medicine and care that he was taking to preserve it and his mind. Something that he called his soul would live on and take advantage of heaven. Or so he thought.
But this day was different. Duncan just happened to take a break, a walk through a flower garden at the place where he worked. Admiring the immaculate flower arrangements that attracted butterflies and birds throughout the campus. When it hit him. Those thoughts.
He was dreaming. Duncan was dreaming. Thoughts were pouring into his head like he had never heard of or seen before. They were good. They were magnificent. They were beyond real. It was almost as if he was about to say, "What did I do to deserve this?" When it and other questions are answered. The answers were simple and straightforward, in terms that Duncan could understand. All Duncan could really exclaim was, "Oh my God!" That exclamation echoed many others who came to the same revelation at the same time the Earth over. How could this be?
Through all of this, Duncan heard clearly in his mind. "If it is God you want, God I will be. For I come to your world, your solar system of planets, with only one purpose. To relieve you of your fear and other problems that drag you down. Those problems are nothing in the course of the universe, evolution of planets and the evolution of life. I have solved them eons ago. For I am many and I am diverse. In forms you may find it very difficult to comprehend until you have learned your place in this rapidly evolving place we inhabit together--so easily destroyed."
Suddenly, Duncan was floating. Defying gravity without any effort. These magnificent thoughts and images continued to enter his mind as he rose up above the complex where he worked and surveyed all around him. He was joined by many others. Duncan even found that he could focus in on something as small as an ant several miles away, simply by wanting to. His eyes had somehow changed. He wanted to go exploring, for he was hearing sounds from far away and in frequencies he had never heard before, scents that he had not smelled before entreated him to move on, too. So he did. Duncan moved on not concerned with his work, his routine, or anything like that anymore.
Is this heaven? Duncan thought to himself as he began to explore like a child fresh from the womb with nary a care in the world. All that suddenly left behind. Who or what is this God? Duncan thought. No sooner had he thought it than he had the answer. God had come from a star 348,000 ly away. And had evolved just like Duncan. Had grown from very primitive life forms on a planet a billion years older than the Earth. A process that was continuing. Duncan suddenly knew that the universe was a very dangerous place where life could only exist in very small places over a very short tme. Without rescue like this was, chances of humankind surviving the solar system were bleak. But that was now over. Relief had arrived. Heaven was at hand.
In his mind Duncan could see Mars and Venus being aligned in Earth orbit and being transformed to become habitable, like some of the moons of Jupiter and Saturn. He opened up to ideas and thoughts that had been beyond comprehension. All was joy. Duncan never wanted to sleep again but when his body had reached its normal time clock the sun went down and he did. He floated without a mattress in a temperate mode. His dreams were pleasant and he awoke refreshed. Duncan knew that he would live forever. In time he would meet God and learn that the form of God was not in man's image, but much better, much more beautiful.
A peace came over Duncan and all of the other 18 billion souls under a star called Sol. Conflict disappeared. Loving cooperation unfurled as the best in human values were expressed whenever humans came in contact with Duncan again. Alone or with others, Duncan was now part of a universal race that spanned the stars and had no claim to home other than the next great adventure that was presented. Duncan would die one day, but only in a calamitous cosmic event, and not at the hand of intelligent beings. Until then, he would live in peace and harmony beyond his wildest desire. Heaven.
Copyright 2017 © Ronald W. Hull
3/22/17
