Hanging by a Thread

Stars and Angels

We often say that when people die, the ones that go to heaven become angels and stars. They fly free, and they twinkle gracefully. Butmaybe it's not as good as it seems. Maybe heaven is just an illusion, a pacifying thought. Maybe it does exist; just not as the way we imagined. Maybe angels aren't free, and stars aren't twinkling.

It's not easy to put this into words. It's also not easy to change the way people think about this.

As far as science goes, stars don't twinkle; stars burn.What if that's people burning up there? Once, someone told me, "Count the stars. The amount there are, that's how many people you've touched. That's how many people would care if you let go, if you went. It's an infinite amount of people."

Although these words touched me, inside my head, I was thinking, "What about the ones who've left already? There are more of them than there are here on Earth. There are more people who left to become the stars, and I could easily find my place there. They beckon me there, to be with people like me." Now, I know that's not the case.

If stars burn, then why would they beckon me? If they cared, why would they want me to burn with them? Stars aren't the souls of the good people. Stars are the souls of the ones who dyed their own hands red with their own blood. Stars are the souls that are suffering within plain sight, but no one is able to see their pain. Just like when they were alive. Stars... they are the people who suffered in their bodily self, and are now suffering even worse because of their actions.

I personally don't believe it's their fault. But maybe it's a way of telling them that they took a wrong decision. They hurt everyone who used to be around them, and now they need to face the music. Now, they are an example of what would happen to people like us.

Angels have it even worse. They are the ones who go by completely unnoticed. Their punishment is to feel invisible, to find a way to help people without being seen. It's a challenge, impossible to most. However, sometimes the odd few succeed. Sometimes, miracles happen. We call them miracles, because they're caused by an unseen force - and that is true. A miracle, unlike some people's beliefs, do not have to just be caused by "God". They can be caused by the exceptional angels.

The others... they're not so lucky. They do everything they possibly can, but do not get anywhere. They end up stuck with full wings, but no use of them. Their gift of flight is also their curse. They can use it to help, or to have them criticized. The successful angels will rub it in their face that they're the better ones, and the discrimination that happens in the human race will happen between the angels as well. They're suffering what they did while they were alive, but worse.

Sometimes, I think that the people in "Hell" might be lucky. They are in pain, but at least they can do so out of sight. At least they can't hold on to the hope that maybe someday, someone will notice and pull them out. At least they've accepted what is to become of them, and are at ease and certainty.

Maybe there is no heaven. Maybe there's just hell, and a worse version of hell that we called heaven. Maybe we've been wrong the whole time about ourselves.

But now I have a new message. Count the stars. Those are the people who care about you. Those are the ones telling you to not end up burning like them. And there's a heck of a lot of them telling you that exact thing.