Originally books were made to share knowledge and for people to learn. Later on, it was made for fun. Nowadays they exist for all sources; being my favorite the ones that make the person grow. And it doesnt need to be a book that specifically says how to grow and even gives you some steps. But the kind of book that shows a story along with a lesson. Just like Five people you meet in heaven. Story that tells you about Eddie’s life and death and how was his journey there. This book made me reflect a lot…
I think that most readers are going to extract from this book to start appreciating more each person that they meet. Even though they were small talk. Another thing that they are going to extract is to start hearing other people’s stories and learn from them. And honestly this really had to do with how he wrote the things. Because even though it has a lot of details it doesn’t get boring. On the contrary, it makes you analized more.
Where they prove you that time is relatively, which is shown when in some chapters he was one age and in others he was other. Which we cannot specifically apply in our life. But we can take it as that time is never going to stop. So what are we going to do about that? And what we decide to do with it is what is going to happen with us and what is going to happen next. And later on, those moments are going to serve as knowledge and personal growth. Because time is a constant but what happens with it is what makes it so amazing.
Which makes me think about the end of this book, “the world is full of stories, but the stories are all one” this line is very deep for me. Because if you give it a thought you can see how realistic it is. Just like what happened to Eddie, some people that he met in heaven were strangers but somehow he affected their lives in a drastic way, just like us. I remember being on a fast food line with some of my friends and this woman came up and grabbed my arm. I didn’t recognized at all. And when she noticed she started presenting herself, but still, I couldn’t recognize her. I just pretend. But somehow I changed her life and did some good for her. It has been a long time, and I still don’t know how was her, but she did have an effect on me. And that’s the issue, that we are not alone even if we feel like it. We are constantly affecting others, just like a Domino effect.
Most of the time people say to us, “forget about people, they are not going to remember you when you die… that’s only going to happen if you are famous”. And for a long time I thought it was true. And surprisingly this book made me see it from another perspective. Because Eddie wasn’t a famous person, he was just another one that could be replaced easily. But he still has an effect on others. Like the Ruby Pier it was once again full of people, some machines had a name changed and a little girl had the opportunity to have a beautiful life. All this and more from a person that wasn’t famous at all and still being remembered.