The Five People You Meet in Heaven

It was a brilliant movie, initially the title turned me down as I was expecting those "successful" people and "heroes" in heaven that boasts about their great acts on Earth. However, as I watched the first man the protagonist met, I realized I was wrong. It was more than that.

The protagonist is a circus maintenance manager when one day he used his life to save a little girl. He then arrived at heaven, which was way different than he thought. Heaven was subjective, some people think of Heaven as a Garden of Eden, a place where they can float on clouds and laze in rivers and mountains. But what is scenery without solace? The first heaven he went to was the heaven of a Blue Man, who told him that he would meet 5 people who made great impact in his life, and would teach him things that he never knew about while he was still on Earth.

“This is the greatest gift God can give you: to understand what happened in your life. To have it explained. It is the peace you have been searching for.

When he first arrived at Heaven, he couldn’t talk, just feeling more energetic, it was to mimic the state he was in when he met each of the characters.

“Your voice will come. We all go through the same thing. You cannot talk when you first arrive."

He smiled. "It helps you listen.”

The Blue Man was a stranger than was killed to avoid killing the protagonist, Eddie. So Eddie started feeling guilty and unfair. The Blue Man then explained, that Strangers are just family you have yet to come to know. There are no random acts. We are all connected. You can no more separate one life from another than you can separate a breeze from the wind.

It is because the human spirit knows, deep down, that all lives intersect. That death doesn't just take someone, it misses someone else, and in the small distance between taken and being missed, lives are changed. There is a balance to it all. One withers, another grows. Birth and death are part of a whole. The only time we waste is the time we spend thinking we are alone.

So the next person he met was the Captain. He had lost his life so the Eddie and his team could live. However, the Captain also admitted that he was the one who had caused Eddie’s lifelong leg injury. Eddie then understands that his act of burning caused someone to be burnt, and because of that, the Captain shot his leg, and thus, he couldn’t save the girl, and blamed the Captain, which if not for him, they wouldn’t survive too.

What Eddie learnt here was the willingness to sacrifice that the Captain possess, to know his duties, to know what is the best for everyone, to know that he has the responsibility over his team, and thus be prepared to take sacrifices.

“That's the thing. Sometimes when you sacrifice something precious, you're not really losing it. You're just passing it on to someone else.”

This is really true, all the sacrifices in terms of time, and other resources, are all not for nothing, all the love we “sacrificed” for someone else, all are worthy, all are passed on to someone else, in one way or another. How ready are we then to sacrifice? For the most important moment, most important person, most important task.

Then, the third person he met taught him about anger.

All parents damage their children. It cannot be helped. Youth, like the pristine glass, absorb the prints of its handlers. Some parents smudge, others crack, a few shatter childhoods completely into jagged little pieces, beyond repair.

Many children or parents are in denial of affection for one another. All these, are perhaps because of the damages done.

Eddie then is told that holding anger is a poison. It eats you from inside. We think that hating is a weapon that attacks the person who harmed us. But hatred is a curved blade. And the harm we do, we do to ourselves. That’s because no one is born with anger. And when we die, the soul is freed of it. But now, here, in order to move on, you must understand why you felt what you did, and why you no longer need to feel it.
There is a cognitive behavioral therapy involved there. It is also true, as to at many times, when we understand the absurd reason behind our emotions, we are liberated from that chain, and thus lifted, and accept it, and eventually be cool about it. Same as grudges, repression, and fear.

Then, the forth person Eddie met was his wife. He learnt about love.
Lost love is still love, Eddie. It just takes a different form, that's all. You can't hold their hand... You can't tousle their hair... But when those senses weaken another one comes to life... Memory... Memory becomes your partner. You hold it... you dance with it... Life has to end, Eddie... Love doesn't.

Truly beautiful. Actually, in today’s context, the relationships do end, but the love, the history, the memory, lasts. Though we shouldn’t dwell on the past and so on, having good memories of the relationship should be enough to be thankful and grateful for. Perhaps, this is why Samy said that at times, to be able to forget is a gift too. Perhaps, I’m still not liberated from the selfishness, the kind where a child hangs on to his mom’s leg, not wanting her to go and continue staying to play with him.

The last lesson, then taught him that his presence made an impact on lots of people, as he prevented many accidents and saves many lifes. Also, that he was forgiven about that girl in the burning house earlier on, since he was in deep remorse about it.
So the whole book showed us that each affects the other and the other affects the next, and the world is full of stories, but the stories are all one.
Though I think the lessons are getting more and more cliché towards the end. Still, it was a great film. Some random quotes from the movie that worth mentioning yet no place to fit them in:

“Happiness in a tablet. This is our world. Prozac. Daxil. Xanax. Billions are spent to advertise such drugs. And billions are spent purchasing them. You don't even need a specific trauma, just 'general depression' is enough, or anxiety, as if sadness is as treatable as the common cold.”

“The manager once called me the 'best freak' in his stable, and, sad as it sounds, I took pride in that. When you are an outcast, even a tossed stone can be cherished.”

“Silence is worse when you know it won't be broken.”