Just what do we mean by paradise anyway? Humanity has always overanalyzed the subject. Probably because we’ve had too long to think about it. From the beginning of time actually, give or take a day. Since then, the concept of Paradise has gotten far too complicated, with interpretations both theological and cosmological. So let’s just cut to the chase. In most religions, paradise represents an ideal afterlife, a reward for the righteous and heroic. It might be communion with God. It might be seventy-two virgins. Take your pick. Or as Winnie the Pooh once famously decided – both. (Actually, I can’t imagine women wanting to train another seventy-two men on the right way to do things.)
But don’t think paradise is just anything we want it to be. There are rules. There are expectations. And don’t expect to have any freedom of choice in the matter. There’s the right way to do things or else. Wanna get thrown out again? Which means there will be no free will, either. Free will most definitely will question what’s right and what’s wrong. This won’t be any democracy. What we CAN expect is that there will be plenty of love. People can’t get enough of that. Even so, it won’t be a love with any passion. Passion really messes up tranquility and order.
Consider this quote by Christopher Marlowe in his play, “Dr. Faustus”. “Hell hath no limits nor is circumscribed in one self-place; but where we are is hell, and where hell is, there must we ever be.” Did old Kit Marlowe hit the nail on the head here? What if we were never designed to live in Paradise? Would we even be comfortable there? We thrive on challenge. We don’t like to be bored. Did the world make us this way, or did we make the world the way we are? These questions are major themes in the novel, Shadows From The Sun, due to be released this September.
Shadows From The Sun also tackles the possibility that Paradise could have an even darker side, too. In the world we’re used to, things go wrong all the time. Misfortune touches every life. No one is immune. But the ultimate tragedy would lie in an ideal world where so much is expected. With an ideal lover beyond a person’s wildest dreams. In other words, there is so much more to lose in Paradise if anything goes wrong. Then we would suffer emotional grief as unbearable as any physical hell. Maybe through no fault of our own.
And it’s not like we’d be in a place that’s very secure. How would Paradise protect itself if the material world does get in by mistake? People there wouldn’t know how to resist. They’ve never had to. Who would stop temptation from spreading like a cancer? Especially temptations we consider to be virtues. A desire to be independent, for instance. To be free. To have the right to choose what’s best for ourselves. No wonder any faith that’s tried to create a paradise on earth was doomed to extinction.
Now consider the Paradise that an Indigenous First Nations people have created in Shadows From The Sun. There, the people adapted en masse to a life of innocence when faced with a war that nearly destroyed them all. And consider how a group of White gold seekers would react when they discover this paradise where the rivers run with gold. They have no intention of corrupting a perfect way of life, and yet . . . . . . . .