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Pondering the concept of Hell is amusing to me.

For some folks, there is a certainty about its nature and the requirements for entry. It is the wages of sin. For some others, it moves around, based on what will allow their behavior in the moment without a perpetually-punitive consequence. Others imagine the concept as irredeemably linked with the concept of "Heaven" itself - that all is fallacy, and that the object is to escape this karmic cycle and to enter Nirvana.

What the hell, let's draw a little image of Hell today, shall we?

In this life, each of us is imbued with - by forces largely out of our control - a sense of right and wrong.

This sense of right and wrong is always played out in this world.

My bias in my playing out of this sense in this world is built upon Christian doctrine. I was reared by Christian children of Christian children of Christian children - going back to at least the Protestant Reformation, so far as I know. My upbringing occurred in the middle of the 20th century until the present. I have lived my entire life in the United States of America. My culture is a Christian culture; my culture is the materially-dominant culture of mankind in this era. I am a Christian-influenced Buddhist. I am reconciled to repeating this heaven-hell fallacy while this "Holden form" houses my spirit.

My sense of right and wrong is not so ambiguous as is the sense of some, and not so cut-and-dried as is the sense of others. My former father-in-law, I believe, has a more-certain understanding of these matters; I know of several folks who are advanced academics who seem to lack any semblance of certainty. The teachings of Jesus instruct that the one who appears to be utterly "wrong" may be the one to enter the Kingdom of Heaven. It seems certain, though, that Jesus's Commandments are going to be part and parcel of any legitimate claim to moral decency in this life: Thou shalt have no other God before Me; love thy neighbor as thyself. Why the hell would anyone want to argue that?

OK. So, there're two guidepoints. (And, yes, we can move into some number totaling about ten as we develop our worldly rules to assure an afterlife which may or may not exist.)

So, let's look at a practical case. Let's use Old Holden as an example. Hell if I care.

I would like to have my spirit exist in eternity in a state of love, in a state of calm, in a state of acceptance with eternity.

I do not imagine my existence in that state to transpire absent other spirits. As I view eternity today, it includes Mackenzie, my children, my parents and grandparents, and about 40 other people who have loved me so selflessly that I have grown spiritually as a result of the contact - God's sublime offering to my earthly state. This is Heaven. There is a peace that passeth understanding in this state. None shall be excluded, but my worldly desire is that there are some whose spirits are certainly there with mine.

Further, I imagine a state in which all spirits' best aspects are there with my best aspects, in that blessed state.

The place where this concept goes to hell in a handcart is with the negative aspects of my spirit, and the interface of my best aspects with the negative aspects of other spirits.

Let us imagine that I have a fundamental conflict with another person. Allow further that the other person is unable to acknowledge incongruence in his actions, as they relate to the person's stated beliefs about right and wrong. (I am speaking of Ten Commandment-type matters, such as lying, stealing, cheating, and inability to accept responsibility for behaviors such as fundamental disloyalty.)

My Christian training instructs me that it is my moral responsibility to love this person, and that there is spiritual growth available to the person who loves an "enemy" that is not available when one loves a person who has not trespassed one. I can do that . . ..

But does Heaven have to include my continuing to love this wretch for eternity? Why can't I have surcease as an eternal reward for my earthly efforts? In this life, that is what I covet. I long for the absence of attack in the presence of my spirit.

I have been both a good boy and a bad boy in my life. My very best is pretty good; my worst is unprintably awful. There are likely no levels of hell adequate to punish for eternity my misdeeds. Your Falwells, your Hitlers, your Stalins, your Idi Amins, your Regis Philbins. All are deserving of a hell of a lot less torment than is the worst of my spirit.

But, as a Christian-influenced soul, I wish for an eternity of peace and calm for my spirit. I wish for this state while I exist in this hellish life.

In Heaven, I will live in the state of calm and peace. That state will include a sharing with splendid souls. Each of those souls, in addition to mine, will have had some of their aspects included in worldly behaviors which would condemn them to an eternal septic tank swim, accompanied by a never-ending loop of the voice of some Jerry Lewis character from the 50s. (Obviously, the French will have a different sense of Hell.) Even though these spirits were attached to a form that was not perfect, somehow the perfect parts of these spirits will abide forever with the perfect parts of mine. Ahhhhhhhh . . ..

The perfect parts of other spirits which had the hellish contact with the unsavory aspects of the spirits mingling with mine through eternity might look at our Heaven as a certain Hell, right? Hell, yes.

OK.

My Christian training has further instructed me that it is not for me to know, predict, even opine about the eventual eternal outcome for any spirit. If I have been horribly wronged in this world by a person, if the wrongs seem to me to be clearly Ten-Commandment-type failings, it is not for me to know the outcome. My faith is to include trust that God knows what must be, and it is my role to stay the hell out of Her way.

OK, I can do that . . ..

How about the simple ego part of things? How does this package called Holden keep itself from flying off in all directions like some fissioned entity?

I do not mind the concept of an eternal swim in fecal-coated Jerry Lewis soundtracks, or other seemingly unpleasant experiences of the world.

When the best parts of my spirit are communing forever with the parts of the spirit with which I had those fundamental conflicts, I . . . will be in Hell.

What the hell: as we mature, we often mellow in our attitudes. Maybe God will lead me to a better understanding of my role in coping with abusive treatment in this world. Nonetheless, today it is my belief that Hell will freeze over before I will see this differently in this life.