sum: quantum
http://www.amazon.com/Sum-Forty-Tales-Afterlives-Vintage/dp/0307389936/ref=ntt_at_ep_dpt_2
Here in the afterlife, everything exists in all possible states at once, even states that are mutually exclusive. This comes as a shock after your Earthly life, where making one choice causes the other choices to disappear. When you become a lover to one, you cannot become a lover to others; when you choose one door, others are lost to you.
In the afterlife you can enjoy all possibilities at once, living multiple lives in parallel. You find yourself simultaneously eating and not eating. You are bowling and not bowling at the same time. You are horseback riding and nowhere near a horse.
A velvety blue angel gently descends to see how you are coming along with this afterlife.
"This is all too confusing for a poor human brain," you confess to the angel.
The angel rubs his chin. "Maybe we can ease you into this with something simpler, like a day job," he offers.
You are immediately dropped into a work life of simultaneous contradictions. You are concurrently practicing several careers at once, all the careers you had considered when you were younger. You simultaneously count down your rocket ship launch and defend a criminal client in front of a jury. In the same moments, you scrub your hands for a gallbladder surgery and navigate an eighteen-wheeler down a New Mexico interstate. Gone are the constraints of location and time.
"This," you tell the angel, "is too much work."
"Perhaps we could warm you up with a simpler situation," he considers. "How would you like to be in a closed room, one-on-one with your lover?"
And then you are here. You are simultaneously engaged in her conversation and thinking about something else; she both gives herself to you and does not give herself to you; you find her objectionable and you deeply love her; she worships you and wonders what she might have missed with someone else.
"Thank you," you tell the angel. "This I'm used to."
Here in the afterlife, everything exists in all possible states at once, even states that are mutually exclusive. This comes as a shock after your Earthly life, where making one choice causes the other choices to disappear. When you become a lover to one, you cannot become a lover to others; when you choose one door, others are lost to you.
In the afterlife you can enjoy all possibilities at once, living multiple lives in parallel. You find yourself simultaneously eating and not eating. You are bowling and not bowling at the same time. You are horseback riding and nowhere near a horse.
A velvety blue angel gently descends to see how you are coming along with this afterlife.
"This is all too confusing for a poor human brain," you confess to the angel.
The angel rubs his chin. "Maybe we can ease you into this with something simpler, like a day job," he offers.
You are immediately dropped into a work life of simultaneous contradictions. You are concurrently practicing several careers at once, all the careers you had considered when you were younger. You simultaneously count down your rocket ship launch and defend a criminal client in front of a jury. In the same moments, you scrub your hands for a gallbladder surgery and navigate an eighteen-wheeler down a New Mexico interstate. Gone are the constraints of location and time.
"This," you tell the angel, "is too much work."
"Perhaps we could warm you up with a simpler situation," he considers. "How would you like to be in a closed room, one-on-one with your lover?"
And then you are here. You are simultaneously engaged in her conversation and thinking about something else; she both gives herself to you and does not give herself to you; you find her objectionable and you deeply love her; she worships you and wonders what she might have missed with someone else.
"Thank you," you tell the angel. "This I'm used to."