I went to lunch with someone I didn’t really know this week. She plays the trumpet and takes seventeen and a half credits. I never would have know this if I didn’t sit down with her, and so I’m glad I did.

We don’t often think of our souls as immortal. No one living has seen what lies on the other side of the curtain, and I mean, we all have work, and jobs, and homework, and we so often forget that "it is immortals whom we joke with, work with, marry, snub, and exploit--immortal horrors or everlasting splendors." We live day to day, and for the most part, there’s nothing wrong with that. But a tragedy happens when we forget to value people as immortal souls.

We are imperishable and holy or we are horrors that are eternally dead. We are becoming one thing or the other. We are helping each other become one thing or another. We are precious. And we are not as perishable as we seem, but our time here is more perishable and impactful than we realize. Our actions have weight.

When I started to think about people this way, the way I treated them changed for the better. I was content to listen to them more and talk less myself. And I am glad of that. I started to see glimpses of the immortals in our midst. I started to get to know them a little better than I did before. And for that, I am grateful.

So, to you, a reminder from C. S. Lewis, your soul will never really cease. Neither will your neighbor’s. How you decide to treat them in light of that is up to you.

(Quotations and ideas from The Weight of Glory by C. S. Lewis)