“But why, why are all these others in this place so unhappy, and why are you few here filled with peace and joy? Yes, I know, I have looked below. And you are with those you love. But so are all these others.’ “ ‘We don’t resent God anymore,’ she said. ‘Any of us here. We don’t hate Him.’ “ ‘The others do?’ “ ‘It’s not that they hate Him,’ she said gently, being very careful with me, as if I were easy to bruise. ‘It’s that they can’t forgive Him for all this … for the world, for what’s happened, and for this state of Sheol in which we languish. But we can. We have forgiven Him. And all of us have done it for various reasons, but forgiveness of God, that we have attained. We accept that our lives have been wondrous experiences, and worth the pain and the suffering, and we cherish now the joy we knew, and the moments of harmony, and we have forgiven Him for not ever explaining it all to us, for not justifying it, not punishing the bad or rewarding the good, or whatever else it is that all these souls, living and dead, expect of Him. We forgive Him.”