Hereafter

It's interesting to me that many folks don't think much about the existence of an afterlife until after they experience death.

Despite my having no belief in the traditional Heaven or Hell, I'm fascinated by question of what happens to our conscious, our energy, once we die.

Perhaps nothing at all happens, and we simply cease . . .

Perhaps our energy lives on in a different dimension, or a different reality.

Perhaps tradition is right and we get sent to a great reward or an eternal punishment.

Who really knows?


Not me. And not Clint Eastwood either, if I understood the message in his most recent movie. Eastwood's Hereafter is more about our need to connect with others than it is about an afterlife; a commentary on intellectual curiosity and social need more than religious fervor.

Most folks tend to think little about the possibility of an afterlife until death takes a nibble at us, or takes a hard bite out of someone we love. It's then we lose a bit of faith in ourselves, and question our ability to control our own lives, and our own future. We look for something greater than ourselves. That something gives us hope, and confidence.

And it allow us to put into perspective our intellectual dilemma and the social loss we've experienced.

I'm unsure if Matt Damon's character in Hereafter really speaks to the dead. The best part of Eastwood's movie, though, is that the character himself isn't sure. He recognizes his connection is with the living; he has to touch them, and engage them in order to get the information they need to feel better. Any healing that comes from his psychic readings has little to do with learning about the afterlife, or learning new information from a departed loved one.

The healing comes from letting go: it happens when we stop looking backward, and are able to once again enjoy life in the moment.

A lesson many of us should learn.