This book resonated with profound emotion and insight into the human condition. It’s interesting seeing how heaven is perceived in someone else’s eyes. I do believe there is an afterlife of some sort, but I don’t know what exactly lies there. I think the concept presented in this book in which you meet five people, that in one way or another, shaped your life or are interconnected to you is clever. Furthermore, they explain to you about your purpose, destiny, and their involvement in you. This made me think about how true it is, there are many circumstances which affect your life. Every action made affects someone else and vice versa. This would be an ideal “end” (or a new beginning) to someone’s life, especially if the person feels useless or felt as if they lived without a purpose. In my opinion, this would be a pleasant way to receive closure. In addition to that, you may have unanswered questions and it would be great if they would be answered. Sometimes we wonder about certain life events and seek answers, but only to find they aren’t able to be resolved. Hearing someone else’s point of view on why you should feel worthy and loved is very much enlightening.
I thought it resonated with profound emotion and insight into the human condition. Humans aren’t that complicated, but we sure do have a way of making things so. A life lived is filled to the brim of hurt feelings, misunderstandings, misplaced grudges … we carry the burden of guilt over things we have no control over to begin with. We always seem confused by life and our place in it, plagued by detrimental doubts about what we didn’t do, what we failed to try, what we never said, and we we couldn't give.
Mitch Albom’s version of heaven is a wondrous, engaging concept – without being preachy or overtly recognizable as any particular faith. I appreciated that. If we’re lucky, we all believe in something, and it will be that something that waits for us when our life on this particular plane is through. Who would my five people be, and what they would teach me?
A list of my favorite quotes from The Five People You Meet In Heaven
"People think of Heaven as a paradise garden, a place where they can float on clouds and laze in rivers and mountains. But scenery without solace is meaningless." - Narrator, pg. 35
"This is the greatest gift God can give you: to understand what happened in your life. To have it explained. It is the peace you have been searching for." - The Blue Man, pg. 35
"Strangers are just family you have yet to come to know." - The Blue Man, pg. 49
"No life is a waste. The only time we waste is the time we spend thinking we are alone."- The Blue Man, pg. 50
"Time is not what you think. Dying? Not the end of everything. We think it is. But what happens on Earth is only the beginning."- The Captain, pg. 91
"Sacrifice, you made one. I made one. We all make them. But you are angry over yours. You kept thinking about what you lost… You didn’t get it. Sacrifice is a part of life." - The Captain, pg. 93
"You have peace when you make it with yourself." - Ruby, pg. 113
"Holding anger is a poison. It eats you from inside. We think that hating is a weapon that attacks the person who harmed us. But hatred is a curved blade. And the harm we do, we do to ourselves." - Ruby, pg. 141
"Everyone has an idea of heaven, as do most religions, and they should all be respected. The version represented here is only a guess, a wish, in some ways, that my uncle and others like him - people who felt unimportant here on Earth- realize, finally, how much they mattered and how they were loved." - Mitch Albom
