Heaven and Hell: An Allegory

This is a little story my favorite aunt, my mom’s middle sister, shared with me a long time ago. It stuck with me and I enjoyed it so well that I translated it and performed it in my Spanish class. I had to write it, then, memorize it because I’m not fluent in Spanish, due to my hearing impairment. It makes conversations in other languages difficult, especially since most of us talk exceedingly fast and usually do not enunciate.

Here’s the story she told me:

There are these two rooms. The first one is marked “Hell” and the other is marked “Heaven”.

When you go inside the first room marked “Hell”, the first thing you notice is a large table with all kinds of delicious, mouth-watering, home-cooked foods. It all looks and smells so good and it makes your tongue tingle in anticipation.

But, there’s a problem. All of the people sitting around the table are sad, moaning, and crying. Seems very odd, doesn’t it? Why would anybody be sad and crying before such a delicious banquet set before them?

When you look closer, you notice the reason why.

Instead of arms, all of the people have very thick, elongated sticks, resembling Chinese chopsticks, attached to their armpits.

So, every time the people reach out, pick up the food, and then bring it over their heads to feed themselves, the food falls to the ground, and they really aren’t or can’t be quick enough to get a good bite of food.

So, they suffer, knowing that eventually they just may starve to death.

Now, let’s check out the second room marked “Heaven”. Surely, this one will be a lot different.

When we walk inside, we see the exact and same kind of large table with the most scrumptious, mouth-watering feast fit for a king or queen. The same as in the other room. It all looks and smells so good.

Hmm… Just like the other room though, instead of arms, all of the people also have very thick, elongated sticks, resembling Chinese chopsticks, attached to their armpits.

Yet, all the people sitting around the table are happy, joyful, laughing, and having a wonderful time.

Here’s the difference:

Instead of reaching out, grabbing the food, and then bringing the food over their heads to feed themselves, each of them pick up the food, and feed the person sitting directly across from them on the other side of the table.