I speculate


I visited K.H. at a Rehab Centre today.  He is a retired Episcopal Priest (probably in his 80’s) who assists at one of the two parishes where I also “help out”.

When I first met K. it was clear that he was in some stage of Alzheimer’s disease, or senility.

Back then it was not difficult to understand that his firm handshake and bon-vivant manner were “learned and practiced behaviours”: - a way of masking an increasing loss of memory.

It was no different today.  He greeted me with a handshake and a joke. 

But then he went on to say that his dear wife R. never visited him at the rehab.   Of course she does and is there every day.

K. is, and has been,  very affable and gregarious. 

Thus it was difficult this morning to distinguish the old and active K. from the new and memory impaired K.

That was so until I began the Lord’s Prayer.  K. joined in with a full and strong voice.

In that prayer the old K. and the current K. became one.

Maybe “heaven” is like that.  Maybe heaven is the state and situation in which old and new is one.


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