Being on a Parallel

Reading:  3 Nephi 24-30

A special, "Hello!" Goes out to Elder Zach Leach from Wisconsin who is on his way to the MTC and then Brazil - "Good Luck and Godspeed Brother (a favorite line of mine from How Rare a Possession (Parley Pratt), a video tool from my mission)."  I met Elder Leach in the Minneapolis airport where I sat with my Dad for several hours trying to catch a flight and pondering the idea of parallel thought - today's verse has truly been spin-cycling my brain!

3 NEPHI 26:5

5    If they be good, to the resurrection of everlasting life; and if they be evil, to the resurrection of damnation; being on a parallel, the one on the one hand and the other on the other hand, according to the mercy, and the justice, and the holiness which is in Christ, who was before the world began. 

The word "parallel" is not used in any other verse within the standard works so it fascinates me with its inclusion here.  There is no hidden agenda in its usage.  The meaning is not poetically motivated or anything worth extreme thought.  It simply places everlasting life and eternal damnation on courses that do not deviate in breadth, width, direction, or propose - they are parallel in every aspect except they can never cross and one is the road of evil and the other, good.

Why are eternal life and everlasting evil not opposites on the same road?  When comparing good and evil it is easy to classify them as opposites, with opposing poles, and at constant odds with each other; that is clearly not the case here!  Here we are seeing the parallels of choice pointing in the same direction but leading to two decidedly different conclusions.

I'm seeing an acceptance in choice; if you choose evil you will reap your just reward, damnation.  Likewise, your reward for good is everlasting life.  So, is it possible that damnation literally is a "reward" for someone who chooses evil as everlasting life truly is a "reward" for someone who chooses good?

One of my rambling blogs, I know, but gets the thought process bubbling and excites the synapses - don't think too hard on it just go for the everlasting life!

~Kipling