heaven

I become flat with the chair. None of my body protruded. My head became a flat panel TV that no longer received nor transmitted, just was, faded into the chair. “I could die this way” I thought, no fear attached; and I began to think of heaven. Would there be freedom from rules? I imagined I would jam with Miles and Trane. Or would they be reserved for only the elite dead that were “worthy”? No, it would be fairer than that and I would be included. Would they play the same? Well, almost, I decided, but with even less regard for the audience to “keep up”. Was it beautiful? Yes, absolutely, and everyone got it without work or struggle. They didn’t really listen so much as let it flow through them. (Since there was no mass to their bodies, this was much easier in heaven) And while we are on the subject of no mass, there is no pushing others around. If you push, you will make a hole in their spirit which would quickly close as if nothing had happened. Generally, there weren’t many people who had pushed people around in heaven, because most of the them didn’t make it. But there were a few who did, where their actions “for the greater good” was judged more important than their pushy character flaws. Besides which, aggression had been so long accepted and was so widespread on earth, that the rules were bent a bit to let them in as long as they weren’t outright pigs about it.

Trane and Miles played pure, as they were likely to do on earth. They were so far along when they came up that they didn’t have to adjust too much. Despite the widespread acceptance of aggression, Miles had some interim work to do but that was on his personal spirit, not his outgoing spirit. But he lead the way when playing with others, feeling comfortable with Jimi, Janis, and Otis right off. I remember when Bird came up. He came with such nasty habits but soon we discovered he was a scared genius-child underneath. He went right for Bach. Bach learned how to swing and write music really fast as Bird improvised over his master works, composing as he went. Bird softened with time and ironically wound up hanging with the romantic classical guys. One by one he wore the composers out and returned to his jazz roots where the players could play all day and all night without getting tired. Another surprise was how much the artists crossed over. Picasso liked to jam, and he and Miles were very similar. So similar they would have hated each other for being so alike on earth, but here they saw their differences and laughed them away over a few Martinis (Yes, alcohol is accepted) . They both mastered art and music, their styles becoming so enmeshed that the works they made in heaven were so similar that one could not tell them apart. Nat Hentoff, almost here, is still writing about them in loving prose, having fulfilled his earthly duties to lift everyone up and get them to listen and feel the music on earth, he writes on other things now that help lead earth-souls to heaven and even occasionally slips a note to the living to try to get them to be wiser and more prepared. In heaven, everyone already has the message.

That’s fine, all the artists went to heaven, but who else is there? What about the everyday man, especially those good people who work 9-5, maybe are kind of bland and average? They’re here too, the ones with good intentions while on earth, that is. But as on earth, they don’t stand out, mostly choosing not to, and staying within their “comfort zone”. Most of them wear bland clothes and pleasantly fit it, preferring recreation to conversation, TV to live music, magazines to books, and often still read the newspapers daily to search for news that never happens, never has consequences for them, nor even interests them. I guess it’s a comfort thing. Auras can wear polyester, too, and most of them choose to.

A few individuals, thought to be despicable on earth, make the grade and freely enter heaven. Most are awestruck that they have actually done well enough They were so uniformly despised in the former life. Teachers that were there to help others on earth made it. Hookers made it. Many housewives did not. They just didn’t do enough good to cut it. Some businessmen made it, but most didn’t. The funny guys and the wise guys often made it as they knew the real story and were brave enough to tell it. Just rewards, so nice after life on earth, went to those that followed that horribly undefined and often upside down concept of “goodness” on earth.

Like dancing to jazz, you will have to figure it out for yourself.