I was reminded tonight of my (semi-)theological whims aged 14.  OPM’s Heaven is a Halfpipe was on an MP3 disc I’d put in my car full of ‘old’ music – or, rather, of what I used to listen to as a teenager.  Anyway, I was sitting at traffic lights pondering the lyrics of Heaven is a Halfpipe, comparing my teenage views to now.  It was nice to have a fairly simple world-view based on not much more than guitars and skating.  I liked to skate when I was younger (though I was always too much of a wimp to master the halfpipe), now it’s not something I’d think about doing in a hurry.  I did like to think about lyrics of such songs back in the day, but now I’m fairly certain they’ve aged as much as I have.

If I die before I wake
at least in heaven I can skate…

now most people think of heaven
they see those pearly gates
but I looked a little closer
and theres a sign says “do not skate”
so if you wanna come to my heaven
well we’re all gonna have a ball
and everyone u know is welcome
’cause we got no gates or walls

The lyric writer creates his own personal heaven.  I like his style.  He knows as much about heaven as any other person.  It seems a bit like the previous post, substituting God for heaven – an idea created and developed by a personal image creation (though, of course, this is not an entirely serious creation).  His heaven is an all-inclusive heaven, where all are welcome, including those who believe in Jesus, Muhammad and Buddha.  Moreover, there is no God in his heaven.  Maybe he intends to fill that position himself (since it is his heaven).

Perhaps heaven is a halfpipe.