Heavenly Gleanings & Self-Deliverance

By Nils Oden Moore

John faces his mortality as he has faced most of lifestoically. For
John, life could be good or bad, enjoyable or miserable, depending
on ones luck. There is no Heavenly purpose for a person to
conduct his or her life in one fashion over another. But there are mortal
and therefore moral purposes, in Johns estimation. In turn, there is
individual responsibility for ones actions. And John explores those
human values and responsibility, as well as his Heavenly Gleanings. In
the process, John develops his final theory about life, and executes his
final very mortal deed to help his fellow humans.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris US
• Release date: Jun 13, 2011
• ISBN: 9781462885640

Nils Oden Moore

The author lives on the Eastern Shore of Maryland with his dog and his books. He also is surrounded by endless water, and countless birds, as well as the boundless other creatures that thrive in that fertile environment.

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Copyright © 2011 by Nils Oden Moore.

Library of Congress Control Number:       2011909843

ISBN:         Hardcover                               978-1-4628-8563-3

                   Softcover                                 978-1-4628-8562-6

                   Ebook                                      978-1-4628-8564-0

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the copyright owner.

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to any actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

This book was printed in the United States of America.

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Contents

Heaven?

John’s Muse

A Copernican Revolution

A Beginning

Logic

The Ten Commandments

Break-fast

Judgment by Evidence

Justice is Sweet and Sometimes Messy!

Epilogue

John’s Metaphysics

DEDICATION

To Doggie Heaven! If it’s there, I hope I get the wag!

Author’s Note

The author has taken certain liberties with certain elements of punctuation such as ellipses, in order to indicate pauses in a character’s dialogue or the narrator’s narrative. The traditional space dot space dot space dot space is not used. Instead, any number of dots can occur, and a larger number of dots means a longer pause in speech or thought. Most often in the novel, ellipses occur before a sentence, usually indicating a very brief pause in conversation, or indicating that the speaker is thinking before he or she speaks. Sometimes the ellipses just indicate that the speaker is changing the subject. Ellipses at the end of a sentence usually indicate that the speaker has been interrupted by another party or that the speaker has simply run out of steam . . . . The author has also taken some liberties with capitalization by capitalizing a particular word some times, and not doing so at other times. This was done for effect, and for better presentation of an idea or concept. The author’s practice of bolding a word or phrase serves as a way to indicate a speaker’s emphasis on that word or phrase in his or her speech. Narrative bolding is the author’s way of emphasizing the importance of a notion or a concept. Finally, every line that is indented in the story is dialogue. Every line not indented is the storyteller’s narrative.

Author’s Second Note

Many people may want to read Part I and then jump to Part III. These two parts contain most of the action of the story. Part II is composed chiefly of fleeting speculations. Some might even refer to them as boring metaphysical bullshit! Anyway, Reader’s choice!

Preface

So, Dear Muse, what is the essential element of everything? And don’t say I don’t know! Say nothing rather than that!

(NO ANSWER)

Well, aren’t you going to say anything, Muse?

No!

Why not, Muse?

You told me not to say what I wanted to say!

Oh yeah! Sorry!

Counter Preface

Hey, John.

Muse! How are you?

Good, John. Hey, John, I wanted to run something by you.

OK.

John, the Creator, please bear with me here, creates one thing. But that one thing, John, has the elemental character to expand; and in many ways!

OK.

John, the main way it expands is by being cut in half and becoming two. These two things now interact with one another.

I see.

Do you, John?

Muse, to be cut in half—is that a negative force, somewhat like a negative gravity?

What do you mean, John?

Well, instead of a force that attracts and increases matter in size, it is a force that decreases a matter’s mass and pushes bits of it out relatively evenly away from it—like expanding into a Universe, so to speak.

That would be it, John. It is an expansive force, rather than an assemblage force such as gravity . . . . John, did you know that if you could fold a piece of paper over on itself 51 times, its thickness would reach past the Sun?

Yeah, I think I did hear that, Muse.

Well, each time you fold a piece of paper, you are essentially halving it. And piling those halves on top of one another amounts to essentially doubling the amount over and then over again. That is what is behind creation—halving!

But, Muse, where did the piece of cosmic paper come from?

That I don’t know, John!

PART ONE

Heaven?

Hi Doc.

John. How are you today?

Good.

Any pain?

Not really, Doc.

Let me check a few things on you, John.

The Doctor proceeded to give John a quick look-and-see. He was mainly concerned about one thing: any signs of John’s head exploding from within.

Any headaches?

Not yet today, Doc.

Any pressure?

Not really, Doc.

Good . . . . John, we have to remove that growth in your head and probably start you on chemo as soon as humanly possible.

Why, Doc?

Because that mass will continue to grow and spread until it kills you—probably very soon, in fact!

Mmmm.

Doesn’t that bother you, John? You do care if it kills you, don’t you?

Hmmm; let me think about that, Doc!

John, do you want to die?

Not particularly.

Then we should operate immediately, John!

I don’t know, Doc. The other day you told me that the tumor was in an area that was pretty dangerous for anyone to go digging around in. I think you said that I might, or would, lose control over some of my motor skills. Now, I already can’t hear or see for shit; and I guess I have managed to work around those problems. But I really don’t want to lose my legs. In case my house catches on fire, I wanna be able to run the hell outta there. Contrary to what some people might like to see happen to me, I don’t want to see my skinny ass going up in smoke. That prospect stings what’s left of my brain, and fire never has been my thing.

John, you would have a nurse or caregiver 24 hours-a-day if you lost your legs, so to speak. You would not be left to burn-up!

Well, that’s another thing that bothers me, Doc. I don’t want someone pissin’ around with me 24 hours each day. I’m used to living by myself. I like to wipe my own ass.

So, what do you think we should do, John?

I don’t know, Doc. At first blush, I guess I would have to say do nothing.

John, you’ll be dead in a few weeks! A few months, tops! And God knows how awful the pain will get for you. If we operate, we may be able to extend your life for years, and do it without the complete loss of feeling in your legs! My God, you’re still a young man—you’re in your fifties, right?

Sixties, Doc.

You look a lot younger, John!

Thanks, Doc.

What about your kids, John?

Don’t have any.

How about other family or friends, John?

I stick pretty-much to myself, Doc. I used to have some dogs, but they died a while back.

So you do want to die, John?

No, not particularly, Doc.

John, life is precious!

I don’t know about that, Doc . . . . Pardon the truism, Doc, but life is just life—at least to me! I can’t assign the value judgment precious to it.

Huh . . . . Well, it’s the only game in town, John.

I don’t know that anyone can say that either, Doc; at least, anymore than they can say the opposite.

John, you really believe that?

Based on what I have witnessed up to this point in my life, I guess I would have to say yes to you, Doc. Although I’m always open to new data.

That’s just your depression talking!

What depression, Doc?

Being depressed over being ill and being alone!

Doc, I’m not depressed. I’ve spent most of my life alone. And I don’t feel sorry for myself—I don’t sleep all the time, and I don’t mope around the house. I watch the sun rise every morning, that is, if it’s not too cloudy, and I keep myself entertained all day long with my thoughts and playin’ with ideas that come my way. No, Doc; no depression here!

John, I don’t get it. Doesn’t the thought of dying scare the hell out of you?

I suppose it does make me a bit edgy, Doc. And I admit, when I was younger, the thought terrified me. But not so much anymore.

Do you believe in God, John?

Well, Doc, I don’t mean to be a smartass, but when people start throwing around terms like that, I just don’t know what they mean. Some people tell me their definitions of their god, but for the most part, they don’t make much sense to me. Although I do like some concepts that I’ve heard about Heaven—or Valhalla, or Paradise, or whatever you might want to call some kind of existence after death. And I suppose I wouldn’t mind seeing if any of them were true. But, of course, I would have to die first.

So you do want to die!

No, I don’t think so, Doc. But I’m not going to fight it either. It’s inevitable, so there’s no winning anyway.

I don’t know, John. I’m not sure you’re making sense to me.

Doc, you in a hurry?

Why?

Pull up a chair, Doc!

The Doctor hesitated and just stared at John for a moment. Then he followed John’s instructions and slid the only chair in the room closer to John and sat down.

Doc, as unrealistic and sugar-coated as the notion of a heaven might seem, imagine that there is a realm where the rule of logic, as we know it, doesn’t apply—where things that may seem like contradictions, here and now, are not contradictions in that realm. In other words, a person can have his cake and eat it too.

You mean that after he enjoys eating the cake, it’s still in front of him to