I Was No Pain At First

As I ran, I felt my foot come down on top of a moss filled rock, and I knew I was in trouble. The slick moss ripped away from the slab of granite and it sent me flying. I knew the fall would be inevitable, and took the it as best I could and prayed for some luck. Branches ripped apart my face, snapping from the contact. Blood flicked up into my eyes. My shoulder made contact with the trunk of a tree as the rest of my body dug into the mud. My legs flipped up over me, crashing into piece of granite bulging out of the ground, pain traveled its way up my leg.

At that time, I felt like a rookie sky diver preparing for his first plunge. The cabin door opens to reveal the extreme distance of his fall, which leads to either sheer excitement or eventual death. The naivete that sheltered his fear disappears at the sudden reality of the moment. By then, of course, it is much too late to turn back. The very thought that this was his idea seems absurd to him, and he feels like the only person on the face of the planet. And so he closes his eyes, takes a deep breath, and

Robert Herrick, an English poet, once said, “Hell is no other but a soundlesse pit, where no one beame of comfort peeps in it.” Picture any type of Hell with relief, happiness, or even the smallest crack of a smile. There is no place. In fact, one can only think of the complete opposite, whether it is a Hell filled with neglect, pain, disgust, or a never-ending life of horror. This is the place created by Dante Alighieri; The Inferno is exactly the type of Hell where no person would want to be. Even those who acted upon the lightest of sins suffered greatly. While each realm contained a different sinner, the punishment that each were forced to face was cruel, repulsive, and sometimes rather disgusting. Through grieving tears without an

“ Well then, you’ll be able to meet new people and see the world, IN HEAVEN!!!! The ruler laughed cruelly again, and they took her away.

“No don’t come. I don’t want you to die too. You have so much to live for. Tell my family that I love them.”, Susan

As I peered into the gallows of hell I realized that everything I’d known to this day would soon vanquish to dust before me. The lies built up into a monstrous wall would become easy to see through. I would know the truth of the changes made before my eyes and the changes made in me.

“I think I saw her in the Bottomless Pit,” Garrett said. “You should really jump in there.”

Hell, although we will most likely never actually know anything about it for sure, has always seemed to be brought up in the media, talked about on television, and depicted in different ways and through all of the different types of media there are around the world. For example, one version of Hell as described in Jean-Paul Sartre’s play No Exit is that the setting of Hell is a mostly empty room in which three people are selected to stay for eternity (Sartre). Whether they were selected by chance or at random, nobody can tell for sure (Northern). The characters, Garcin, Inez, and Estelle try to figure out why they were all placed together, but will never know even though they have an eternity together to figure it out (Sartre). The thought that this setting could be a Hell in it’s own can be hard to comprehend. The fact of the matter is that the three people have no looking glass in which to see themselves, no way to know how the other people in the room feel about them, and no way to get away from each other, for they are locked in this room for eternity (Sartre). The fact that one of the women, Estelle, is a sort of conceited woman who wants to see how she looks all the time makes her feel the need to ask the other woman, Inez, how she looks (Sartre). When she does this, it shows the way that it is human nature that we are constantly worried and wondering how they look through another person’s eyes (Northern). The idea of the Northern Existential Group that “Hell is other

Her cold latex hands took hold of my bare arm as she pulled it toward her and said with a smile, “this will only hurt a bit!” I felt a chill go through my body as the hypodermic sword pierced my skin. The white walls around me seemed to be closing in like a vignette photo, darkening around the edges and becoming blurry until suddenly, darkness. I was floating upon a puddle of dark abyss. I laid there for what seemed like hours until my limp body hit the tile floor. I awoke in a daze moments later, my feet being held above my now dizzy head and feeling like I had been hit like a truck. “What happened?” I mumbled as I began to sit up. The room, now filled with doctors and nurses, erupted in voices insisting I lie back down.

In today’s world the idea of hell is sometimes hard to fathom. The horrific and disturbing images that have been portrayed through out movies, religious artwork, television, and stories have drastically influenced our perceptions of hell. It is even sometimes looked upon as a joke and taken too lightly. It also provides people with a sense of fear and motivation to live their lives righteously in order to avoid this fate. In the bible, hell is described as a very real place that it used as punishment for those who keep Christ out of their lives. In, Exploring the Philosophy of Religion, hell is described as a place alienated from all things good, hopeful, and loving in the world. In simpler words, hell, the opposite of heaven.

Virgil is curious as to why Beatrice came all the way down to Hell just to tell him this. Beatrice responds that God has arranged it so that the misery of Hell cannot affect her.

A depressing look softened her hard features. “You don't understand. There is no going home and coming back. There is no way out once you are here. Wilbert, you and Spikey are stuck here.”

Most people wonder how God created such an awful place as hell. However, without hell, people would not see God’s justice, and if there were no hell, people would not understand God’s mercy or love since there would be nothing to save people from. Hell is not like any other creation; it is an eternal place of pain and misery. In the Inferno, Dante depicts the Justices of hell since all those who are in hell have committed different sins and they have not repented. Dante asserts that hell is divided into nine levels and the deeper he goes the torment becomes more intense. The worse the sin committed on earth, the worse the punishment in the afterlife; hence humans should be held accountable for their actions on earth, but sinners should not be treated equally because the nature of justice is such that each person reaps what he or she sows.

Somewhere I heard someone talking. And some one crying. Another moan. My head hurt. I felt like I was going mad. I looked out the window of the car, but I could not see more than a few feet. I closed my eyes. I looked over and saw everyone I loved seriously injured. People saw us flip over, why is there no one here. I needed to get help. I found a pair of cracked sunglasses and I put them on. Saying goodbye to my friends I left the car. I heard crying, but from where. I looked up. It was night and there was a light at the top of the hill. Help had come. I was a rope descending from the rail seperating New Hampshire from Main. I grabbed the rope, and it stung like fire. In the back of my mind I heard someone yell. The light from the street was fading away.

When I looked down, I observed a river and many rocks under the viaduct. I can’t look down again. Then, a bungee jump trainer helped me to put on safety equipment. The trainer saw my whole body trembling and sweating.