Penal Colony Earth…
Imagine all the different varieties of people that you’ve came across during the span of your lifetime?
Now if you were to try to assemble all of them to attend one function of which they’d all be present, these actually would amount to thousands and thousands of personal interactions of which you’d need a very large banquet room in order to accomadate such an amassing of attendees, correct?
Now imagine all of them congregating in this very large banquet room, and lets say from an elevated position like a Band Stand that’s been positioned at one end of the room. And then imagine you’re viewing this amassing of attendees by letting your eyes span the entire room from this vantage point.
Now one more imaginary task…Try closing your eyes and imagine how many out of the thousands represented in this room are an example of a soulful perfection verses sinful imperfection?
No, not just a good example of what might be seen as a good person on Earth but, one accepted as an honorary member of what some would call the kingdom of God?
Now, I may have lost some of you with the mentioning of God but, just for pure entertainment sake stay with me here!
What I see in viewing my imaginary banquet room are many human beings with a wide variety of criminal intent and varying degrees of larceny in their hearts, but very few who could assuredly be able to represent the kind of standings for their characters that could justify a reprieve from Penal Colony Earth…hum?
I’m sure that my suggestive imaginary view here doesn’t differ much from yours so, what are we really viewing in our fellow human beings? What can be expected from the continuation of repeating history time and time again for meeting our expectation in others?
In gaining an appreciation for what one span of lifetime on earth (+/-28,480 days on average) might result in, in that of being truly representative of our soulful character, what is being scribe into our Book of Life?
More importantly, why are we all here sharing this experience? What is it about the fallibility of humanness that’s not just positioning us here but also that’s petitioning us to be here?
Human beings (with very few exceptions) are criminals, which in a religious sense is referred to as “sinners”. As such, the contingencies in our free thinking choices are tested and the direction of our sway (individual choices) resonates to the degree of the amplification from our imperfections like the balance point when placing weight upon a scale.
The substantive evaluation or monetary value is accounted for as cosmic currency or the amount of LOVE in one’s heart that can be measured on just such a scale!
It is in the pushing and pulling, twisting and turning that life offers up our truest story and exposes the most illusive culprit, THYSELF!
Therefore, it should become self evident that it is in one’s capacity to LOVE that is being evaluated and it is the deficiency in any such capacity that will convict us or allow us to be pardoned? Quite simply, this is because we are all criminals banished to Penal Colony Earth and we are doing time!
Basically, life provides a truthful testimony and exemplifies our propensities for making the right or wrong (loving or unloving) decisions. A measurement of the degree of larceny that exist in our soulful character can be charted and an accounting can be assessed for the merits in our day to day conduct and interaction with other Penal Colony Earth cellmates over an entire lifetime.
Who we are, however oblivious it may seem to us, will eventually become self evident and that self-evidence will present the measurement or weight of a soul’s worth.
In looking at Earth as an old soul or new soul proving ground, it helps to visualize that we are all here because we are imperfect and maybe just maybe this unique experience called life can offer us an opportunity to become a trustee or a model prisoner on Penal Colony Earth.
We’ll never really be able to absolutely prove that God exist to those who choose not to believe, anymore than we’ll be able to prove that Einstein’s E = MC2 theroy of relativity is anchored in our current understanding for reality.
In our current consciousness our intellectual capacity and time allotted is finite and in attempting to find our way back home, one might make a better use of the time allotted by focusing a percentage of the time given to employ a broader contemplation about what may qualify as pertinent knowledge.
Whether or not this is disregarded as conjecture, hyperbole or just purely a theological theroy, it is not a new observation to view our stay on Earth as some form of imprisonment or rehabilitation program.
The human species is an intelligent yet imperfect being so, a God Almighty who created such a species from his imagination (not image) would expect us to seek answers to the one question that comes to mind, why? For what purpose do human beings exist? We live and we die in what could be seen as the blink of an eye in that of the measured time spanning eternity so, what is our purpose?
Ah…the long standing never fully answered question; What is the meaning of life?
Socrates as the founder of Western philosophy and among the first moral philosophers of the ethical tradition of thought said, “the meaning of a good life” is to engage the pursuit of continually learning. Going on to say that one should always question everything — their beliefs, values, assumptions, and actions!
Jesus provided us with his insight about the meaning of life in;
Matthew 6:25-33;
25 Therefore I say unto you, Take no thought for your life, what ye shall eat, or what ye shall drink; nor yet for your body, what ye shall put on. Is not the life more than meat, and the body than raiment?
26 Behold the fowls of the air: for they sow not, neither do they reap, nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feedeth them. Are ye not much better than they?
27 Which of you by taking thought can add one cubit unto his stature?
28 And why take ye thought for raiment? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they toil not, neither do they spin:
29 And yet I say unto you, That even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these.
30 Wherefore, if God so clothe the grass of the field, which today is, and tomorrow is cast into the oven, shall he not much more clothe you, O ye of little faith?
31 Therefore take no thought, saying, What shall we eat? or, What shall we drink? or, Wherewithal shall we be clothed?
32 (For after all these things do the Gentiles seek:) for your heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need of all these things.
33 But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you.
Thus, life isn’t about reaching a specific destination but is about the continued pursuit of experience and knowledge. As first one is blessed with a plus or minus cogent capacity of intellect, which then establishes the degree of obligation that one will be indebted to from that blessing. Then from such intellect one pursues the experiences in what life has to offer, gaining supposed knowledge…hum?
In the accumulation of all these experiences one then can evaluate the development of any and all such beliefs, values, assumptions, and actions and allow intellect to apply all said experiences to arrive at an assessment for what may or may not become gained wisdom.
One key element in any such pursuit is to recognize that wisdom is an infinitely alluring destination in which there shall be no arrival.
And equally important, to always remain anchored in humility in the further contemplation of the Socrates Paradox in that of finding comfort in that you may very well know nothing at all;
“For my part, as I went away, I reasoned with regard to myself: I am wiser than this human being. For probably neither of us knows anything noble and good, but he supposes he knows something when he does not know, while I, just as I do not know, do not even suppose that I do. I am likely to be a little bit wiser than he in this very thing: that whatever I do not know, I do not even suppose I know.”