Have you found joy in life? Has your life brought joy to others? These are the questions one has to answer before being rewarded the afterlife. whether one attains it or not will depend on his/her answer. well, that’s according to the Egyptian beliefs. i came across that idea yesterday in the movie The Bucket List, and those lines were asked by Carter Chambers (M. Freeman) to the reluctant Edward Cole (J. Nicholson) . i was just blown away by the simplicity of the questions, by the entire idea of how one’s life could be judged just by raising those two rather simple questions. not that i believe in the Egyptian belief of afterlife, but if asked by Mr. Egyptian god, i’d quickly say yes to the first question. although for the second one, whether my life brought joy to others, just like Edward Cole, i’d hesitate and would answer “ask them”. perhaps Mr. Egyptian god would reply “i’m asking you”, and the stubborn me would shoot back “your second question is subjective, how would you know i’m telling the truth?”. on second thought, if they had developed some shrewd ancient tools and devised effective techniques for building their pyramids, pyramids that had baffled expert engineers, archeologists and scientists at its perfection for some decades, i’d assume a simple and precise lie detector gadget would be a no brainer. so yes, they might just have something with which to confirm if one lied or not. i’m being silly, i know. but seriously, the second question was a tough one, at least for me. in my life, what might those things be that would have brought joy to others? there must have been a number of them somewhere, i guess. but then, if my life brought joy to others, likewise it may have brought, uhm, i don’t want to use misery, let’s try unhappiness, to others. surely it had. and it was surprising how easy it was to answer the second question if only asked the other way around, “had your life brought unhappiness to others?” if asked that question, i’d answer a quick yes. although i may have done others wrong in the past, i would have easily and sincerely asked for their forgiveness too. of course there’s no way i’d remember each shortcomings and misdeeds i committed, only one thing i’m certain of. i tried as best as i could to always apologize or ask for forgiveness whenever i offended anyone, and for me it was as easy as saying thank you to anyone, without ever losing its sincerity. I’m not sure if i’d be granted the eternal life with this answer. there was this one event i could cite no doubt when my life brought real joy to others. Jan 23, 1984. the first time my parents saw their first-born, and my grandparents their first “apo”. other than that, anything else would have an “i’m not sure” answer. maybe if i look back on the first question, i may just find the answer to the second. joy and happiness enwrapped me whenever i touched another person’s life and knew that i somehow brought joy to them too. it could be anything from selfless act of helping, of sharing, for showing genuine concern, showing love, respect, care, understanding, compassion; uplifting the spirit, providing hope, light, inspiration; simple things like making others smile, or laugh or feel loved, appreciated. those simple things. those were the ones that brought joy to my life, and i guess, in a way, had too brought joy to others. collectively, these little things may just add up to something. something that would have somehow mattered. something that’s probably significant enough to allow me to answer the second question “has your life brought joy to others?” positively.how about you, have you found joy in life? Has your life brought joy to others?
and oh, do you know what’s next after afterlife?
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