Heaven Adjacent

by Catherine Ryan Hyde

It’s a dump.” “Why not make it into something better?” “Because it’s enough.” That sat in the air for a moment. It was unclear, at least to Roseanna, who would speak next. Or when. As it turned out, she did. “Because it’s everything a person needs to live a decent life. It has a stove for heat. A fridge to keep your food cold and a stove to cook it when you’re ready to eat it. It has a bathtub and a shower to get you clean after your chores and a bed to lie down in at the end of the day. And that’s all a person really needs. And I think the whole trouble with us is that we think we need so much more.” “It’s nice to have more than just the basics of survival.” “Is it? Maybe. I don’t know. I think it’s a trap. We have all this ‘stuff.’ And we think we need it. But it never feels like enough, and we only end up working to defend it, and to get more. And we have all these labor-saving devices. So now we have this life that’s almost entirely devoid of labor. A few centuries ago, there was work involved in everyday survival. And I can’t know this for a fact, Max, but I have a really strong suspicion that not too many people were neurotic back then. Who had the time for it? Now we spend our spare time getting addicted. To drugs or alcohol, or our smartphones, or the internet, or checking our email, or shopping for all that ‘more stuff’ we think we need.”

"because it's enough" :)

let’s say that wherever she is now, she can still think. I mean, let’s say she exists somewhere with . . . you know. A . . . consciousness. Can you honestly tell me she wasn’t smart enough to learn from her mistake? She spent her whole life working for something she never lived long enough to enjoy. If she were here right now with full benefit of hindsight . . . being able to factor in her sudden death . . . well, I have to believe she’d tell me not to make the same mistake. Don’t you think?”

“I’m letting you down. I get that. People always will. That’s not as much of a downer as it sounds. There’s a reason people will always let you down. It’s because they came to this weird planet to live their own lives. Not anybody else’s. Classic case of needs in conflict. You get what I’m saying?”

Putpose

“I’m beginning to think that’s the reason we’re all down here on this planet together. To try to make things a little easier for each other. Why else would we interact with people at all?

Love this!

“In Chudley, New York. Last name Miller,” he said, robotically. Talking to robots made real humans more

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