Elín Heiður Ólafsdóttir English 303 23-02-09
Ása Nordquist Essay
THE LESSONS YOU LEARN IN HEAVEN
Heaven – does it really exist? It seems there are numberless ideas today of what “heaven” is like. The fact of the matter is that no one can say for certain. The five people you meet in heaven starts with the end of Eddie’s life on earth and the beginning of his journey through heaven. In the beginning Eddie is saving a girl from an accident and dies without knowing whether he saved her or not. He awakens in the afterlife where he meets five people that help him understand his purpose in life on earth. Although Eddie is upset at the beginning because heaven isn’t the way he imagined, he becomes content once he learns the five lessons. However out of those five people there were three that had the most impact on his life and taught him the three most valuable lessons.
The first lesson Eddie learns was from a man called the “blue man” he was a member of the freak show in Ruby Pier from Eddie’s childhood. The blue man died when Eddie was a young boy. Eddie was playing catch with some friends when the ball landed in the street. When Eddie went to retrieve it he ran in front of the car that the blue man was driving. The blue man swerved out of the way and managed to avoid hitting and killing Eddie, but subsequently had a heart attack and died because he was so traumatized of the close call. The blue man teaches Eddie the first lesson that everything happens for a reason, furthermore that all lives intersect and no life is wasted, he died in order to preserve Eddie’s life and so that Eddie could save many lives of other children.
The second lesson was taught by a woman who Eddie didn’t recognize to be directly part of his life. She wasn’t, but she did directly influence his life because she was the reason Ruby Pier was built, she was Ruby and her husband had built it for her. Ruby tells him why his dad died, Eddie thought he died because he fell into...