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My godfather died a couple of days ago.

I am going to a funeral for him in Texas. I don't know why, but for the first time I started to contemplate how death affects people.

I didn't know Denny well. In fact, I had only visited him a few times before. But this man had held me when I was no bigger than a loaf of bread. He'd seen me walk, seen me run, seen me talk. For some reason, it's like when he died my guardian angel went up in smoke.

I started to contemplate where Denny is. Is he in Heaven? But what if he wasn't a Christian? What if he's Jewish, or some other religion? Will he go to Hell? And the more I thought about it, the more absurd it sounded. Hell was for bad people, it was to punish them! Denny was one of the kindest of people. I'd never seen him mistreat or raise his voice at anyone. Of course, again, I didn't know him that well, but my father did and he'd DEFINITELY tell if he didn't like a person or not. And my father is a good judge for character.

So where is he? Is he floating around, getting to see places he's never been, talking to other spirits, enjoying the afterlife? Or is he in Heaven? Or has he passed on to the Great Ranch In The Sky? Death is so predictable, but we know nothing about it.

What about people of other religions? Will they pay for their beliefs with their souls? And what about the people who do believe in the 'right' religion who don't deserve to be where they are? Where are they going to go?

Does this mean that a lone man on an island herding sheep will go to Hell just because he didn't know about God or the missionaries didn't get to him fast enough? What if he's only made small slips? Does that give you a one-way ticket to the Pit of Damnation?

I don't know at all about these things. I'm just writing them down.

For some reason, the Buddhist ways seems sanest to me. They only have five major rules.
1.Thou shalt not hurt thyself.
2.Thou shalt not hurt thy neighbors.
3.Thou shalt not commit adultery.
4.Thou shalt not steal.
5.Thou shalt not lie.
There are more rules that branch off of all of these. And the ending result is that you live as best as you can without harming anyone. Buddha didn't claim to make the world. He never claimed anything. He was just the teacher of this path.

As was Jesus and God. I don't really think that God would be as merciless as to send good people who are only human to Hell. I mean, knowing what I've read about God, he'd rather have more people up in Heaven with him.

There are so many versions of Truth that it's nearly impossible to separate them all and say 'okay, this one is right, let's follow this religion.'

All religion does is help us live life as we are alive and console us about death as we and others around us die.

So Denny never got to see my piano solo. He never got to see me grow up. At least, not while he was alive. I bet in the afterlife, he gets to see whoever he wants, whenever he wants, where ever he wants. So at his funeral, I'll bet he'll be laughing at all the people who started to talk about him there about his cow named Humphrey.