The Paradise We Build

In Dante's "Divine Comedy" there are descriptions of hell, purgatory, and heaven. I was struck by how interesting was the inferno and how boring was the paradise. In the inner rings of heaven you find God in the center surrounded by cocentric circles of saints, all facing God and basking in his glory forever. I see this as "the eternal orgasm" model of heaven, but we should note that such an experience is more than sexual. It is the climax of all "chakras" or modes of feeling. It is the sublime thought, the quenched thirst, the perfect meal, et cetera.

But is such a heaven viable? Can we have perpetual climax? I don't think it's possible because we sense things in relation to the past and the future. I.e. "I felt normal before, but compared to that I feel great right now, and compared to that I have this to worry about tomorrow".

With our limited resources throughout history, we might've said that the idea is to maximize pleasure and minimize suffering and frustration. Now that we are approaching great power and malleability, I think we should examine hard what heaven is like. Please, atheists, examine this question as well, for even if heaven does not yet exist, can you argue that it will never be?

I see heaven as the optimization of pleasure and frustration. There is truth in the cliched idea that our suffering makes our happiness possible.

Attrition and Entropy (running on fumes)

I got everything on my motorcycle working just in time for them to cancel my insurance. For months now employment has trickled in and money has trickled out. I lost my wallet on Friday, which was for a moment devastating. For a moment 'cause I remembered my serenity prayer:

accept the things I cannot change
change the things I can
etc.

I made a list of everything that was in my wallet and it turns out that the only thing I can't replace was an old phone number of an ex-girlfriend. The biggest loss was a Chevron gas card with $30 dollars on it. Here's an idea: instead of putting money on a gas card, can I just buy it in gallons?

So here I am, taking a break from applying for jobs. Would someone please hire me? In my last post I asked for your spare change and none was sent :-(

Here's the deal: all you out there in blogland are too far away for me to tutor or teach or engineer and you don't seem to want to take me up as a charity. So all I have left is my art. I will take commissions for $15 USD per hour plus materials plus postage.

My media are oils acrylics, wire, and words. I work fast. I am posting a sample of one of my abstracts which took me 3 seconds. Place your orders in a reply to this post.

P.S. the picture came out sideways. The black belongs on the bottom.