An old essay I wrote which I couldnt find so I had to rewrite it. It is meant in the best conscious spirit possible: The 1001 Ladders to Heaven Once, a long time ago after the Angels who traveled up and down the ladder of Jacob trying to awaken mankind realized that there was no ladder for man to climb and actually reach Heaven So they took the wood from the true cross of Christ and constructed a ladder directly from earth to heaven. The ladder was old and had splinters and rough edges and old blood on it and it was a long and arduous climb so it came with some advice: In order to reach the top one must conserve ones energy. Therefore one must learn an inner and outer silence, concentrating only on the next footstep or wrung on the ladder. Occasionally a man would be awakened by Jacobs angels blowing the trumpets and see the ladder and begin climbing it and if they conserved their energy and only spent it on climbing the ladder without complaint of splinters or roughness or blisters, with their last bit of energy they could attain to heaven. Satan, the opposer and Lord of hell saw the loss of souls – good souls that he would not be able to use for the fires of hell and so he called for a conference of his most intelligent demons and presented this problem to them. One, who had been a builder in his previous life suggested the following; let us duplicate these ladders so that there are 1001 to choose from. This will make awakening man not know which to choose from and give us time to inject evil into him. Satan then spoke, saying: I am a lawyer, and I also am under law – while I am able to do whatever I like on earth I cannot build a ladder which does not lead directly to heaven. How then am I going to prevent thousands of waking men from reaching heaven? Another clever devil spoke up. He had been a jeweler and painter of art in his earthbound life and he said: let us paint all of our ladders in various colors and attach to them all manner and cut of gemstones and precious metals and then watch what happens when man wakes and has to pick between ladders. Satan thought this a brilliant idea and set his demon engineers to work constructing 1000 more ladders all of which led directly from earth to heaven, after which he assigned his artisans and craftsman to decorate each ladder in a kind of contest so that they could then keep track of how many men picked any one particular ladder. So now there were 1001 ladders directly from earth towards heaven, all of them being the same distance and height and requiring the same inward and outward silence and 100% concentration of a mans energy to actually reach heaven. As the dazzle from each of the thousand ladders woke men from their sleep they first roamed around examining each ladder before deciding which one to ascend. On some ladders they were already men climbing, the top man might shout downwards to the uncertain, to follow them because they were on the right ladder. There ensued a shouting match on earth with men proclaiming whatever was their favorite looking ladder to be the true ladder and many wasted their breath until they simply collapsed back into sleep. Others started to climb the ladders but found that after arguing they had lost much strength such that they fell unconscious and dropped off the ladder. Those climbing the various ladders began shouting at men on nearby ladders that they should climb down and instead begin to follow them as they were on the best ladder. Of course climbing up and then climbing back down and trying to climb a second ladder used up so much energy that men were to be seen all the way to the horizon, choosing and climbing and falling and waking and climbing again only to fall again. Sometimes a strong man would pry off some of the gems and throw them at men on the other ladders, knocking them off. Being men as men are, the soon became something of a matter of pride as to how many men one could knock off another ladder or convince them to climb down either by jumping over those who were following them or by causing all that followed them to fall as they stepped down on the hands of the ones below or knocking into their heads, so that in the melee, it seems that almost no one made it to heaven or even close. Those who had used their voice to convince others to follow them began to find themselves more and more weary because the climb was long and arduous and took a mans last strength to reach; so even the very strongest men might get three steps below heaven and the hands of those already in heaven trying to help them up proved useless and as the first man fell, he would knock into those below him so that they all fell into the pit. In the meanwhile the demons sat around with little clickers to count how many climbed each ladder and how many could keep their mouths shut and how many fell back. So even though every single ladder was legally bound to reach directly from earth to heaven, none on any of the thousand ladders adorned with the things which men desire ever made it even close before having used up all their strength, and then they fell into the waiting arms of the laughing demons who simply placed them in pits or sacks and carried them off. There however, were a few men who saw the plain ladder standing in the midst of all the other gaudy ladders and took notice of the sign placed at the bottom of it. Quietly, perhaps after whispering to some of those around them, they began the painful climb up the one ladder which was created from the wood of the true Cross and reached heaven where they could rest in celestial bliss and nuzzle at the bosom of our Creator, gaining the strength needed to return and help others. Thus ends the story of the 1001 ladders to heaven, to the great good fortune of those who have ears to hear and eyes to see. (c) 2014 by Richard Lloyd, No Rights Reserved. Free to Quote or Print in Full if writing credit is attached.
Posted on: Fri, 21 Nov 2014 20:44:31 +0000
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