Heaven is and has always been an extension of our deepest desires for peace and security. Heaven has never been a place of intense pleasures, sexual or otherwise, but of tranquility, based primarily on biophilia, which is the love of nature, that is, its peaceful aspects.

I thought about this when I remembered a hymn we used to sing in our little fundamentalist church long ago:

 

There’s a city of light where there cometh no night

For the sun never sets in the sky

In the Bible we’re told that the streets are pure gold

And a cool gentle river runs by.

 

Little children will play and our hearts will be gay

As we stroll through that city of gold

No more dying up there, no more sorrows to bear

And nobody will be feeble and old.

 

This is based on symbolism from the end of Revelation, which itself is based on Ezekiel. It was not meant to be taken literally. But being fundamentalists, we had to argue over it. Revelation does not indicate that Heaven has streets, plural, but just one street. I wonder if the streets-faction split away from the street-faction.

This song sounds a lot like the place I live now, a suburb outside of Strasbourg, France. There is very little crime, and my wife and I can walk anywhere without fear. Most people are polite, and the socialist society takes care of all of our needs. A situation such as this has been extremely rare in human history, including French history. The European Union has come closer to being heaven on Earth than any group of humans has ever been; and it won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2012. Right near our house, our favorite place to walk is along the Ill River, which is gentle and cool, just as in the song. Its flow is almost constant, varying by about 15 cm between rains and droughts, at least during the two years we have been here. The river we lived near in Tulsa varied from dry sand to flood stage within weeks. Partly the gentle flow of water in the Ill is natural, but is also because there is a canal system that regulates water flow in the rivers Ill, Muhlwasser, and Aar.

 

France is politically more like Heaven than anywhere else I know about. Racial strife occurs, but it is very quiet. France absorbs immigrants but requires them to become French. All of the hijab-wearing and African women around here speak French (not surprising, since they come from former French colonies). A recent advertising campaign showed Muslim and African women, and indicated that people frequently asked them, even politely, Where are you from? The correct answer, said the advertisement, was, I’m from here. As in our idea of Heaven, people from everywhere blend together.

The song makes Heaven sound like such a wonderful place that one can overlook some obvious problems. If little children are playing, does that mean they were children when they died? And will they remain children forever and never grow up? This is a question without a logical answer and lends itself only to humor, such as what Mark Twain used in Captain Stormfield’s Visit to Heaven.

Anyway, I thought I would send you greetings from Heaven.