The Purgatory of Waiting

An Airport Lounge may be the nearest approximation to Purgatory voluntarily created by man. Long, dead hallways are populated by lone couples stealing that last kiss goodbye before a prolonged separation. Fighting families squabble over who gets to pick the small bottle of booze that will take their duty free selection to its limit. And yet there is also joy and camaraderie. A stranger takes a picture for a group of students. People smile in anticipation of reuniting with loved ones. It truly is an in-between state.

Purgation is always spoken of as some kind of negative thing, we want everything now, we don't know how to wait. But waiting, the discipline of delay, is to learn to hope.

Purgatory is not Hell and it is not Heaven. It is the point in which we exist and choose the path we want to take. If we lose hope and cannot wait, our choices will lead us to a Hell of our own making. But if we can trust to hope, have faith, then from out of purgation will emerge Heaven.

Just because we are stuck in the middle there is no cause to forget that there is more than just this moment. We have all departed from some place, and we are headed somewhere too. When we remember this we regain our hope, even if at present we are bored and stuck waiting for the gates to open.