***** All 64 of my years have taught me that Heaven is in embracing our inescapable greed and recognizing that our only choice is between pleasure and joy, and this is what we have been missing all these centuries and that this is what Jesus was on to and tried to point us toward. If I am incorrect in this then everything I've stood on that has seemed like Heaven itself for me all.......

***** All 64 of my years have taught me that Heaven is in embracing our inescapable greed and recognizing that our only choice is between pleasure and joy, and this is what we have been missing all these centuries and that this is what Jesus was on to and tried to point us toward. If I am incorrect in this then everything I've stood on that has seemed like Heaven itself for me all these last 15 years is mistaken. I don't see how that can be. I'm okay with it if I've been mistaken, but I just don't see how that can be. It explains everything that all the great souls in history including and especially that of Jesus have been living and dying to show us. If what I am saying is in fact correct, then I am not to be admired, but to be profoundly envied, zero credit to me.  You know, I think the bottom line is this,  if Jesus life is the most enviable life there ever was then what I'm saying is correct, and this is how I felt about his life from the very beginning, I envied the way I thought his life must feel, to love the world so much....  If his life was just the most admirable, then I am absolutely incorrect. James. ( Pleasure is what our nervous system rewards us with when it thinks we are satisfying me and mine. Joy is what our nervous system rewards us with when it thinks we are attempting some huge good for the neediest. ) ( This is a paraphrase of a wonderful conversation I was privileged to have with a great young social worker, of a Jesuit background, here in the city recently. )