Papa von Higgenbotham and I were recently talking about death, and I asked him who would he look forward to meeting in Heaven? I was curious if he would talk about departed family members or perhaps more historical figures.

It was neither.

Instead, he answered: “You know, Ruben… there are billions of dead who have died and gone to Heaven. What are the chances that I would even run into anyone I know, much less someone famous?”

This is a perspective I’ve never heard. Who thinks of Heaven as a busy city with hustle and bustle, where the only people you see are those crossing the street or making their way to some appointment or other.

But this is how the mind of the exceedingly practical and logical Papa von Higgenbotham works. No sense of the ethereal. No thoughts of a kingdom inhabited not by human bodies but by souls. It should have been no surprise at all.