My son was in the other room with my wife tonight talking about life and death.

He's only 5, but children do think about this stuff, and he's a pretty thoughtful guy, anyway. He had been to the science museum today in Tokyo, too, and had seen a presentation on the "origins of life" which featured the great explosions of the "Big Bang," and all kinds of other ominous cosmic phenomena like that. Those presentations can be pretty void of any sort of warm human touch, and can be scary sometimes, especially for kids.

At first he was almost crying. He was afraid that my wife would die before he did, and leave him behind, and he would be lonely.

I went into the room to see if I could join the conversation and bring him some comfort. I discovered that I didn't really have as many pearls of wisdom as I had hoped. Nothing I said seemed to connect. All my attempted pontificating rang hollow, like a sheet of thin metal. Just be honest, I thought.

I told him that sometimes I feel very scared and nervous when I think about death, too, and I hope that we will all live a long, long time, and that actually I will "go first." He said we should ask kami-sama, (God), where we will go when we die. I didn't say anything at this point, trying to come up with an appropriate response. At any rate, somewhere in the midst of the conversation, he began to perk up. "What if we go to CANDY LAND when we die!??!?"

After that it was non-stop talking for about an hour straight about all the details of "Lollipop Land" (the name had changed somewhere along the way). The trees will be chocolate and the houses will be cookies and even the mountains will be candy!!! Me and daddy will go first, mommy!

Ahhhh. Oh man. I told my son that as much as I want to see what Lollipop Land is all about, I'm not in any sort of rush to get there! Hah! I also told him he shouldn't be, either! This started me thinking about something else, too. Something I've thought about quite a bit over the past ten years or so.

I know plenty of adults who still believe in "Lollipop Land,"

and not in the way my son is thinking about it now, but in a religious way. Indeed, I'd be worried if at age 10 or 12 Isaiah was still talking about "Lollipop Land." I also hope he comes to understand that in a very real sense, he is "kami-sama," and "kami-sama," is him, and he needn't look to religious "leaders" or contrived conceptions of deity as separate from the self for "salvation." But, I digress.

What I mean is to say is that some folks are looking forward to "heaven" so much, they miss life here while they have it. It's just like the endless trap of pinning all your "happiness" on that next job promotion, that next move, next girlfriend, next husband, weekend, party, new car...whatever. It's all a giant scam. Some individuals seem so fixated on what they have been indoctrinated to believe happens after life, they don't have a chance, ironically, to fully live what may well be the only life they'll ever get.

My personal view? Is it just dirt and worms and the end of consciousness? I don't think so. But, that said, it's all a mystery. One thing I do know, though. As I was laying with them there in that small room, feeling the warmth of their bodies next to mine, the soft touch of my wife's hand, and the explosive lilt of my son's enthusiastic laughter, I realized, this is it.

This is Lollipop Land, and I for one am gonna live the hell out of it.

~KafkA

Graham Smith is a Voluntaryist activist, creator, and peaceful parent residing in Niigata City, Japan. Graham runs the "Voluntary Japan" online initiative with a presence here on Steem, as well as Facebook and Twitter. (Hit me up so I can stop talking about myself in the third person!)