Heaven

Last week, the news of rebooting pig brains four hours after the animals have been killed was not actually a shock. That was an earthquake.

Research findings published in Nature challenged the dogma that large mammalian brains are irreversibly damaged after cessation of blood circulation. Scientists had connected 32 pig brains to an artificial perfusion system after killing the pigs, removing the brains from the skulls. Contrary to those who expected the brain to be stone dead - and believe it or not - they showed restoration of circulation to brains' blood vessels and cellular functions.

Unsettling as it is, it may be hard to resist the notion that dead brains are now being brought back to "life."

Honestly, I'm much more comfortable with reading Mitch Albom's The Next Person You Meet in Heaven. That's a fiction I'd borrowed from public library last week, fifteen years after reading the original story The Five People You Meet in Heaven. Another fable full of lessons and hope. People died in the story but they set us at ease. Annie, a lady whose childhood was riddled with mistakes, bully and insecurity, donated one of her lungs to her beloved husband and was soon whisked to heaven. When she met five people in heaven, she was taught something she didn't realise while alive. Her journey in heaven was an afterlife lesson we wished we have had learned on earth.

I would much like to learn the rules of life than to rule the life. That's pretty sure.