true and lonesome

A few years back, a young man said something to me. He was talking about another person, no one of consequence. He said that this person “got blasted all the way to heaven, but he was still all alone.”
I thought it was pretty deep.
I still think it’s pretty deep.
Was this young man waxing astronomical, pondering how alone and inconsequential it must feel to orbit our earth, surrounded by the complete vastness and silence of outer space?
Maybe he was chewing on his mortality, or mankind’s collective mortality. Maybe he was talking about our desire to understand an after-life…a higher power…only to realize in the end that we’ve been chasing a rabbit down a foxhole, a pot of gold, a pipe dream.
If I ever get the chance, I’d like to ask that young man just what exactly he meant.
I hope we all have the chance to get blasted to heaven. I feel like I’ve already tried it once or twice. It was kind of lonely. Or maybe it was the lonesomeness that brought on the blasting…chicken or the egg, right?
A few years back a stranger said something to me, right after that young man blasted my mind to heaven. He said “I don't know about you but I take comfort in that. It's good knowin' he's out there. That young man. I sure hope he makes the finals.”
I sure hope he makes it, too.