the season for takeoff

this seems to be the season in which large numbers of people around me are leaving this planet. not only one mom, one grandma, one dad, but another mom, another sister, john the amazing cousin...it's the chilling reality that regardless of what popular culture says, we all will be living somewhere forever. and when lots of people take off for the spiritual hinterlands we have yet to explore, it makes us antsy, nervous...where did they go and why didn't they tell us everything we wanted to know?
just over the horizon, say the platitudes. just beyond the wall, just past the edge of nowhere. but beyond the platitudes, Jesus points out that there are uncomfortable realities ("where the fire--whether of conscience, regret or heat--is not quenched...") in those hinterlands just beyond. it ain't all palliatives and vague clouds of nice. the purpose for this little land and our sojourn in it is for us to understand the choice, make the choice, and find that the hinterlands are far cooler than anything we ever could "only imagine." (don't get me started on that song. another one that's way too much about "mememe" and not much on the point...)
so what's the choice? Robert Farrar Capon surmises that hell is so infinitesimally small that perhaps it fits right neatly into one of the nailholes in Jesus' hand...after all, the tickets are paid for, the party is on, and anyone who refuses to be there is just being ridiculously obstinate. so you'd think there would be a rather small number. and that they would be just as happy to be miserable there as elsewhere.