What if the next place is a surprise?
In the film Meet Joe Black (1998), Death (played by Brad Pitt) decides that he’d like to take a holiday (and be shown around by Anthony Hopkins).
The transition out of life is described at one point as moving on to “the next place”. That’s in a conversation between Brad Pitt’s character and an elderly hospital patient (played by — enough with the brackets!) played by Lois Kelly-Miller.
I enjoyed watching Meet Joe Black years ago, and the DVD’s on my shelf somewhere. Might watch it again.
[Aside: interesting where the pauses come in writing. I’ve just hovered between “my” shelf, “a” shelf, “my bookshelf” and “one of my bookshelves” when in fact I know that DVD’s on the shelf half-way up the stairs.]
But what was front-and-centre in my mind when --
[Sorry to interrupt; just gone and counted them — on one of the four shelves half-way up the stairs.]
— what was front-and-centre in my mind when I woke up this morning was the phrase “the next place”. I can’t tell you very much about the dream that put it there, but I lay --
[Had to check. Middle of the bottom shelf. Sorry!]
— I lay in bed thinking: wouldn’t it be a funny story if the next place wasn’t the one we were expecting?
[Only half-awake, and I’m already telling myself a story. I feel good about that. I did have to grab my phone because I couldn’t remember the name of that film with Brad Pitt — but that doesn’t mean anything.]
I wasn’t thinking “the next place” in --
[At my age, memory lapses are to be expected. I’m holding up five fingers as I type this and the president’s name is Ronald Reagan. I’m fine I tell you!]
I wasn’t thinking “the next place” in an Up or Down sense — no, that wouldn’t be funny — but what if the next place was actually Valhalla and not, I don’t know, one of those New Yorker cartoons in which two people stand on a cloud holding harps?
Or maybe there’s a ferryboat and I can either produce a coin to pay for my crossing or go back and haunt people?
Now, there’s a story.
What does the ghost want? The ghost wants your spare change.
Never mind the dream; I’m enjoying being awake.
In the film Meet Joe Black (1998), Death (played by Brad Pitt) decides that he’d like to take a holiday (and be shown around by Anthony Hopkins).
The transition out of life is described at one point as moving on to “the next place”. That’s in a conversation between Brad Pitt’s character and an elderly hospital patient (played by — enough with the brackets!) played by Lois Kelly-Miller.
I enjoyed watching Meet Joe Black years ago, and the DVD’s on my shelf somewhere. Might watch it again.
[Aside: interesting where the pauses come in writing. I’ve just hovered between “my” shelf, “a” shelf, “my bookshelf” and “one of my bookshelves” when in fact I know that DVD’s on the shelf half-way up the stairs.]
But what was front-and-centre in my mind when --
[Sorry to interrupt; just gone and counted them — on one of the four shelves half-way up the stairs.]
— what was front-and-centre in my mind when I woke up this morning was the phrase “the next place”. I can’t tell you very much about the dream that put it there, but I lay --
[Had to check. Middle of the bottom shelf. Sorry!]
— I lay in bed thinking: wouldn’t it be a funny story if the next place wasn’t the one we were expecting?
[Only half-awake, and I’m already telling myself a story. I feel good about that. I did have to grab my phone because I couldn’t remember the name of that film with Brad Pitt — but that doesn’t mean anything.]
I wasn’t thinking “the next place” in --
[At my age, memory lapses are to be expected. I’m holding up five fingers as I type this and the president’s name is Ronald Reagan. I’m fine I tell you!]
I wasn’t thinking “the next place” in an Up or Down sense — no, that wouldn’t be funny — but what if the next place was actually Valhalla and not, I don’t know, one of those New Yorker cartoons in which two people stand on a cloud holding harps?
Or maybe there’s a ferryboat and I can either produce a coin to pay for my crossing or go back and haunt people?
Now, there’s a story.
What does the ghost want? The ghost wants your spare change.
Never mind the dream; I’m enjoying being awake.