by Peter Marus

I am going to write something about a book I just finished reading last night. It's one of those books that hit me hard after I read it, and I am not ashamed to admit it, almost made me cry. The book is “The Five People You Meet In Heaven” written by Mitch Albom.

The book is about an old man that is at a point in his life where nothing matters and he thinks what he does means nothing in this world. At the beginning of the book, he dies in an accident at work, and he goes to heaven. Throughout the book, he meets five different people from his lifetime, some he knew and some he didn't know directly. he meets each person one at a time, and they tell him how his life affected their in some form or another, and they were there to teach the man a lesson. Once the man learns what he is supposed to learn, the person disappears and the next person arrives. I”m trying to stay generic, as not to totally give away the details of the book. The whole idea of the book is to say that one's life isn't a total waste, and that what we do in our lives affects others whether or not you know that. It also shows that whatever happens in your life, either good or bad, isn't random and that there's a reason for everything that happens.

After I read this book, I felt a tear well up, and after taking a moment, I emailed the person who recommended the book to me to say thank you. Then I laid in bed thinking about my life and what happened in my life and why things happen. I didn't sleep much last night thinking about all this, and I came to the conclusion that a lot of the bad things that happened in my life by other people were done either to try to protect me or done because that's what the other person thought was the right thing to do. As soon as I got up today, I wrote a bunch of emails to people telling them what I just realized and told them I knew now why they did what they did to me, and that I don't hold anything they did against them. One of these messages was probably one of the most beautiful and emotional emails I ever wrote, and I feel so damn good for doing all this.

A lot of this world makes sense now, and I feel at much more peaceful now. And I have a book to thank for it, and it ain't the Bible.