BookBabble #73: "The Five People You Meet in Heaven" by Mitch Albom

I only came across this book a few weeks ago when someone posted in the Book Threadcast (BookCast) I do on InLeo every other day. Immediately it sounded like an interesting - and fairly deep - concept and I made a note to take a look soon.

Here is the Thread, posted by @sbtofficial (it will be embedded if viewing on InLeo and just show the link if using another front-end):

@sbtofficial/re-adambarratt-zfuflou2

So what are we dealing with? Put simply, when you die you're set to meet 5 people who had an impact in your life (and/or you impacted theirs) which helps to make sense of it all, before moving on.

Whether you believe in all that is irrelevant, it can be taken metaphorically if that sits better, but in a chaotic and sometimes 'pointless' world there are spiritual and life-giving undertones.

In that Thread above, the user mentions they have recommended it to people that suffer from PTSD, and I can understand why. Not only for the reasons in the last paragraph, but the main protagonist was in the military and the story leans on some of that comradeship. So it does stand that those who have fought may find a special connection. Also useful for those who haven't served of course.

As for Mitch Albom, I haven't read any of his stuff either so a brand new author who clearly has a unique angle and style worth investigating further.

It's all about Eddie, an amusement park engineer and his life and the hereafter. Let's jump in to a few key points I picked out…

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A few highlights from the book, followed by my thoughts…

“Each of us was in your life for a reason. You may not have known the reason at the time, and that is what heaven is for. For understanding your life on earth.”

Almost like there's this kind of purgatory, a state where you review what's happened, the purpose, how it all fits together, and what's next. People often talk about 'everything happens for a reason' and it's more a throwaway remark but we don't know how true that is and how deep the rabbit hole goes.

It could be a more a case of deriving meaning from these people and events or the other way round. Either way, they fit into a wider tapestry of which we can't really see from our earthly vantage point.

“That there are no random acts. That we are all connected. That you can no more separate one life from another than you can separate a breeze from the wind.”

Everything's connected. We know that, and it forms the basis of many philosophies and is understood from a more basic perspective too. We perhaps don't think how much one thing connects to another… the ol' butterfly flapping its wings / chaos theory at play.

Whether coming from a scientific, spiritual, or general karma standpoint, everything will affect everything else on some level. We may or may not see it… and perhaps piece some of it together when we pass.

“It’s the thinking that gets you killed.”

I highlighted this bit more for the over-thinking that many of us do. I can't remember the context here or if it's meant literally. It can of course have disastrous consequences in some scenarios, but in a more general life sense, it debilitates us, causes us to hesitate and be indecisive, and retards our growth.

All parents damage their children. It cannot be helped. Youth, like pristine glass, absorbs the prints of its handlers. Some parents smudge, others crack, a few shatter childhoods completely into jagged little pieces, beyond repair.

We're influenced by those around us, especially when we're young and especially the most prominent people around. Our parents or guardians are the people we spend the most time with, rely on, and respect. We will mimic them as we don't know any better yet. They will pass on all their traits and ways of thinking and acting and that will become part of us.

They may well be amazing people and mean well, but that doesn't mean that it's all good stuff. Remember, they were also influenced by their parents and others, and now we're going back a couple of generations which may not be the right attitude or process.

And if they were/are particularly bad then that's something that will be hard to shake and probably never will be. More a case of embracing it and moving on and trying to do a better job this time round if you have kids yourself (or just with others around you if not).

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“You have peace,” the old woman said, “when you make it with yourself.”

Everyone's looking for that oh so elusive peace. Just to be calm and content with themselves and the world. It all comes from within ultimately, it's just a process you need to go through and hope to reach in some way in time. It's an individual journey.

“Things that happen before you are born still affect you,” she said. “And people who come before your time affect you as well.

So it's not just everything in your life, but all that happened even before you were born, and you are in turn affecting all that may happen in generations to come. Maybe best not to overthink this as it might give you a headache, but just realise that it runs deep and far.

Holding anger is a poison. It eats you from inside. We think that hating is a weapon that attacks the person who harmed us. But hatred is a curved blade. And the harm we do, we do to ourselves.

I've heard it said that holding on to anger or resentment is like drinking rat poison and waiting for the rat to die. It doesn't make any sense and you're only harming yourself (actually others too as you're carrying that energy around).

It all comes back to us as we are the ones thinking and feeling it. The other person may be blissfully unaware, and it's your life that is poisoned.

Five people, waiting, in five chosen memories, for a little girl named Amy or Annie to grow and to love and to age and to die, and to finally have her questions answered—why she lived and what she lived for.

I don't want to give the game away, but this quote is really about going full circle. There may come a time where we meet our 5 people in heaven… and later we may be one of the 5 for someone else to meet.

So not only do we get to learn about what it was all about and some key people in that time, but also impart our own wisdom and be that person helping a 'new recruit' (that's one way of putting it ;)) to make sense of their lives and transition on.

That each affects the other and the other affects the next, and the world is full of stories, but the stories are all one.

Back to where we started, the web of activity, events, people and situations. All apparently random, buzzing about, oblivious to it all outside our bubble. But those bubbles overlap, and form new bubbles and are part of something so much larger than we'll ever know (at least not yet).

A summary/intro from the author:

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Thanks Mitch! Anything Else?

A deep one, and away from the more personal developmenty type content of this series, although with a book like this it is the backbone to most of everything else. That being how you view the world and your place in it, and the impact - sometimes unknowingly - we all have on each other.

I guess you could make comparison's to Dickens' classic A Christmas Carol in a way, or stories of a similar ilk. There it was more of a case of Scrooge seeing himself at different stages of life and what he needed to do if he were to avoid an undesirable becoming. This book is more about having lived your life, viewing some of it back and putting it into some sort of order.

There are lessons to be gleaned from each of Eddie's encounters, and whilst some is explicitly spelled out, you the dear reader can come to your own conclusions about what it all means to you.

I may also check out some of Albom's other work in due course, and this was a good introduction to his offerings. And this book has also been made into a movie, but I haven't seen it so can't comment on that… always better to read the book first anyway.

I'll leave you with some wisdom from Mr Bill Hicks! He knew it was all just a ride :)

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First image my own, other images and videos linked to source