A few years ago in the Family Circle magazine there was a little diddy about
heaven and hell.
"A man spoke with the Lord about heaven and hell. The Lord
said to the man, "Come I will show you hell." They entered a room where a
group of famished people sat around a huge pot of cooked stew. Everyone in the room
was starving and desperate. Each person held a spoon that reached the pot, but each
spoon had a handle so much longer than their own arms that it could not be used to get the
stew into their own mouths. The suffering was
terrible.
"Come, now I will show you heaven," the Lord said. They
entered another room, identical to the first ---- the pot of stew, the group of people and
the same long handled spoons. But here everyone was happy and well nourished.
"I don't understand, said the man, "Why is everyone happy here and miserable in
the other room? Everything is the same." "Here," said the Lord,
"they have learned to feed each other."
- courtesy of Margaret Dyer-Forster