How much does a soul weigh?

Lately, I have been doing two things – texting Wes questions about my mom and rewatching Ted Lasso. Last week, we got to an episode where one of the main characters, Rebecca, loses her father unexpectedly. Brad asked me if I wanted to watch that episode, and I said no.

After a few days, I was sick of being held emotionally hostage, so I decided to watch it.

There is a scene where several of the characters discuss what they believe happens when one dies.

“Growing up, I used to believe if you did good things, you went to Heaven. If you did bad things, you went to Hell. Nowadays, I know we all just do both, so, wherever he is, I hope he is happy.” – Ted

“I like to imagine a Heaven where animals are in charge and humans are the pets. I’d like to spend eternity, curled up in front of a fire at Cindy Crawford’s feet.” – Higgins

“I’d like to be reincarnated as a tiger, and then ravage anyone who looked at me wrong.” – Nate

“You know, if you weigh a person’s body right after death, it’s 21.3 grams lighter. Some say, that’s the weight of a soul.” – Beard

“You live, you die, you’re done.” – Roy

I, personally, don’t know what happens when you die. My biggest fear is that nothing happens, nothing at all. You are just gone. Because that spins me into an existential crisis, even before my mother died, I adopted the philosophy that whatever YOU believe happens, happens.

This scene brought me some level of peace, because they all believe very different things, and I believe that ALL of them can be true, and they can all be true at the same time. Higgins gets to be a dog at Cindy Crawford’s feet, Nate gets to be a tiger, and Beard’s soul exists somewhere in the universe, weighing in at 21.3 grams.

I didn’t know my mother’s beliefs. My father raised me very Catholic. My mom never went to church with the family. Today, I consider myself spiritually agnostic.

I won’t get into all the details, but through talking to Wes, I learned that my mom saw a Chaplain twice in the week leading up to her death and that she asked Wes if he would be in favor of going to church with her. At age 65, she was apparently experiencing some type of spiritual awakening. She believed in an afterlife. Under my philosophy, belief is all that it takes – her soul lives on.