Curving toward the center

If heaven were influenced by collective deeds
jails would cease to exist: convicts would be sentenced to do good works, for
we could not afford to have able-bodied, potential do-gooders
to sit in jail and not work to affect the balance.
The weight of each of our actions would add to the tipping, one way or another.
Institutions would be rewarded heavily for the amount of goodness they produce.
American individualism would make no sense.

If heaven were influenced by collective belief
– that is, if enough of us didn’t believe, then none of us would get there –
it would quite possibly create more violence
each trying to convert the other, make the other submit to the right –
but that is similar to where we are right now.
That is strange, don’t you think: it is quite similar to where we are now.

© Meisaan Chan