Geert Callens's Page

An old Jewish story goes like this. A man dies. In the world beyond he is allowed to choose himself between heaven and hell[1], which is, indeed, rather exceptional. The man does not like to take the risk to buy a pig in a poke, so he asks for a short visit to both places before making a decision.

First he is shown hell: a beautiful decorated room with long tables dressed with the most delicious food and drinks. Then a door is opened and the guests of Beelzebub enter the room, all dressed in magnificent clothes. But all persons seem to have the same handicap: both their elbows are stiff, they cannot bend their arm, so they cannot reach to their mouth. From the moment they see the food, they rush toward the tables. In doing so they push each other aside with one arm and try to grab everything they can with the other, much more than they can eat. But then they fail to bring the delicious food to their mouth, and out of anger and despair, they start to hit each other with the duck à l’orange, the lobsters and that sort of things. As Jean-Paul Sartre would say : “L’Enfer, c’est les autres”.

After this visit to hell, the man is given a glimpse of heaven: exactly the same scene. The same beautiful room with the same tables full of delicacies. Again the guests enter the room, dressed in exquisite clothes and again with two stiff arms. Each soul calmly walks towards the table, they all carefully select a piece of food... and reach it to the mouth of the person next to them. All this happens in a serene atmosphere. They all enjoy the delicious banquet. So here we could say: “Le ciel, c’est les autres.”