There's a Heaven

I recently saw a snippet of lyrics from Imagine by John Lennon and got to thinking about it. Specifically, I was thinking about the line "Imagine there's no heaven." And I wondered who would want there to be no heaven. I mean, what in the world could you have against a place of reward for good people? The only reasonable explanation I could think of was that you assume that if there is a heaven there must also be a hell and think that nobody deserves to suffer in hell forever. But that's a huge stretch from what the lyrics actually say.

Then I realized that the song's structure implies that there is a heaven. In the other verses, what we are told to imagine is something opposite to reality. Imagine there's no countries, imagine no possessions, imagine there's no heaven. But in fact there are countries and possessions. So if the song is properly parallel, there must be a heaven.

I know that isn't the message it's supposed to be sending, but it amused me to realize. I wonder if that's why the heaven verse came first - to keep people from noticing, or because if it's different there it doesn't count, or something.

A Note to Men

There was a period of time lasting at least a couple weeks, maybe a few months, during which it seemed like the song Just the Way You Are by Bruno Mars played both on my way to work and on my way home every day. This had two main effects.

1) I started almost hating that song
2) I really thought about the lyrics

I don't believe there is a causal relationship between the effects. Just in case you were wondering. But I did quickly find a big problem in the lyrics. Instead of being romantic, Bruno Mars comes across as extremely annoying if he really acts like he claims he does. In case you don't know the song, here are the offending lyrics:

But every time she asks me, "Do I look okay?" I say, "When I see your face there's not a thing that I would change 'cause you're amazing just the way you are. And when you smile the whole world stops and stares for a while 'cause girl, you're amazing just the way you are."

 Even just saying, "You're beautiful" every time would get annoying. The thing is, if a woman asks you "Do I look okay?" she isn't asking for affirmation of her attractiveness. With those specific words, she wants to know if her underwear is showing or her makeup looks as though it had been applied by a drunk baboon.

Really, anytime a woman asks you how she looks when she's getting ready to go somewhere, you should take a few seconds to glance over her and make sure everything looks right. Then, after she has seen you actually look at her, you can tell her she looks great.