Hollow eyes and nose.
No ears.
Mouth sewn (beaded) shut.
Straight from the "other side" (and wrong side of things).
Wouldn't want to run into this person anywhere, anytime. ;-)
(Credit Photo: Andy Blumenthal)
Showing posts with label Hell. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Hell. Show all posts
April 8, 2021
May 21, 2019
Nightmares All Night
HBO has done an excellent job with showing what happened.
Maybe too good...I was up with nightmares all night.
Last night's episode 3 showed in gory detail the initial causalities from the facility and first responders suffering with acute radiation syndrome, and was completely horrifying.
In the end, the people were in unimaginable pain and were left as mounds of decomposing flesh from the cellular degradation rather than recognizable human beings.
(The photo here was just a precursor to that end state.)
The ultimate death toll has been estimated at between 10,000 and more than 100,000.
The effects of the the radiation was described in the show as like trillions of bullets penetrating everything it comes in contact with for the next 50,000 years.
So far we've had Chernobyl (1986) and Fukushima (2012)...OMG, let's hope and pray that we don't have any others, because this was truly looking at hell on earth. ;-)
(Source Photo: Official Trailer here)
September 9, 2018
Lessons In Teshuvah - Near-Death Experience
June 3, 2018
The Blessings and The Curses
And do swift justice to the wicked that seek their destruction.
Bless those that stand guard at your heavenly and earthly gates.
Curse those evil ones that make a mockery of your lofty kingship.
Bless the humble and faithful to you and your laws.
Curse those that stand in arrogance and spread hate and vileness before you.
Bless those that bless you and seek to do good.
Curse those that curse you and do harm to your creations.
Bless the righteous people with all that is good.
Curse the wicked and tear them asunder so that they are utterly destroyed.
L-rd, please hear your lowly servant and bring the ultimate redemption to your people.
And verily discomfort, smite and throw to the depths of punishment and exile the cursed wicked.
None can stand before you in their shame and disgrace.
Do it for your name's sake; do it for your children's sake, do it for your justice's sake, do it to make things right in your beautiful and perfect world. ;-)
(Source Photo: Andy Blumenthal)
January 28, 2018
The Devil Wolf Attack
It was so completely real, I can't even tell you.
There was a devil wolf that attacked me from the the back and literally jumped on me.
It's claws were wrapped around my neck and I could tell that with any movement whatsoever, they would immediately slice and sever my arteries completely.
His huge jaws were at the backside of my head, it's hot breath searing my flesh, and his sharp gnawing teeth were ready at any moment to snap into my neck.
His full weight, incredible strength, and evil presence were heavy on me and ripping into my back and shoulders.
It was clear how close I was to the very end of it all.
The pure evil of this devil wolf being and the ferociousness of the attack was the most fearsome that I could ever imagine.
What happened next I will never tell anyone, except that I am alive to tell the story.
But this experience of undeniable and terrible evil so close and foreboding has left me a different person forever.
There are forces of true evil out there--for sure--and we must never let our guard down for a second.
But as Rabbi Nachman says, it is a narrow bridge, but with the good of G-d, we must never fear at all. ;-)
(Source Photo: here with attribution to Efraim Stochter)
January 15, 2018
Suicide Back To Go
This is what they told me:
"When you try to commit suicide, there is no light; there is no Heaven; there is only darkness."
Basically, even though they were desperate and tried to kill themselves, their experience was not one of finding relief, but rather of going to Hell!
So while I really don't know anything, this is what I imagine happens when you try to commit suicide.
Yes, there is no light--there is only darkness.
Yes, there is no Heaven.
But I don't believe you go to Hell for being desperate, depressed, alone, and feeling like you have no other way out.
Instead, what I believe is that you "Go back to GO and you do not collect $200."
In other words, you have to start the Game of Life all over again.
Since you didn't complete your tests, trials, challenges, and mission...you go back to the beginning.
You have to relive your life and go through it all over again.
Who is to say, whether it is a better life or not.
Presumably, whatever lessons you were supposed to learn the first time around, you still have to complete those lessons.
So I would think you have to relive a lot of the same.
I don't know about you, but one of the things I hate worst when things go wrong is to have to go back and redo what I've already done.
It seems so fruitless, such a waste of time and effort.
How is that for frustrating--working just to redo what you already did.
Perhaps that is quite the measured "punishment" for those who end their life prematurely--before G-d says it's time.
While we frequently say things about wishing to be young again or do it all over again--I think rarely does someone mean having to go thru the same pain points again.
I assume it's nice to live again, but it's got to be a value-add life--not just a do-over!
So in my mind, while someone on the edge may not have a real choice in what they are doing and in making a decision to take their life--it's probably not a purely rational moment in time--I do think that in so taking their life, they are not doing themselves any favors in the end.
Because, suicide isn't game over, but rather the game begins all over--from the beginning again. ;-)
(Note: I am not talking about assisted suicide here for someone who is at the end of life and in absolute pain and suffering and it is truly time to go--I am sure that is perfectly okay).
(Source Photo: Andy Blumenthal)
October 2, 2015
Insomnia Hurts Like Hell
Because when the rest of the world is sleeping, you are lying in bed like a log awake--and not sure how you going to get to sleep or stay awake the next day.
What follows are sleepless nights, sometimes groggy days, and anxiety about even going to bed at night.
How do I know this?
I've been battling insomnia since my hip's deteriorated painfully, and I had a number of hip replacement surgeries, and a lengthy recovery process, including lots of swimming.
Despite melatonin, warm baths, and even some sleeping meds, my nights were filled with plenty of staring at the ceiling alternating with tossing and turning in bed.
I was almost at the point of giving up hope on being able to sleep normally again, and then something occurred to me.
Stop the meds and just pray!
Over a few days I weaned off the sleep meds, and was feeling really crappy and headachy.
But the real difference was when I got into bed, I remembered and recited the prayers of my youth from before bedtime.
And I added for G-d to please help me sleep normally again.
The very first night...I slept perfectly!
Now, it's been three nights in a row--in Judaism, we call that a chazakah (something that is established).
I am so grateful to G-d for returning me to restful sleep-filled nights--thank you Hashem!
(Source Photo: Andy Blumenthal)
August 7, 2015
Why Can't We Just Stay As Superman?
Our bodies are beautiful, supple, strong, and heal quickly.
We are taught by our helicopter parents and philosophic teachers that "You can do anything you set your mind to!"
In our fantasies, we surely can do amazing things--we lift unbelievable weight, fly around at the speed of light, do karate better than Bruce Lee, outthink Einstein, save the world, and then make off with the beautiful damsel to boot.
Kryptonite is no problem--we are (seemingly) invincible.
Then we hit middle age--40 something--and all of a sudden what do you know?
Oh, this doesn't work right and that doesn't feel right.
The Yiddish expression, "Oy vey" seems about it.
And off to the doctors we go.
After the exam and tests, doc says, "Mr. (or Ms.) [whatever], you have [fill in the blank]."
You respond, "Is that normal--at my age--already?"
Doc says, "Absolutely, this is what happens as you get older."
I say, "Doc, does anything good happen when we get older."
"Of course not"--we both laugh.
This reminds me of when my dad used to sing this song in this funny mock Irish accent, "You're not as young as you used to be you're getting old and gray!"
This week, a colleague was coming down with something--possibly something not good.
I told him how I hoped this turns out well for him and how sorry I was for what he was going through.
Writing off the illness, he says to me, "We all end the same anyway" (i.e. we all end up dead!)--ah, another unhappy notion that is.
I joked back, "But we all don't end up in the same place."
I got a few laughs at that too (some of my father in me).
Well anyway, I thought about this after--about some of the special subhuman beings out there--and the very special place that I am certain G-d has in store for them:
- Serial murders and other violent criminals
- Rapists and child abusers
- Terrorists and their sponsors
- Megalomaniacs, bullies, and corrupt officials
- Thieves, cheats, and liars.
And guess what about these schmendricks--they get old too, they go to the doctor too, and then they are going somewhere warm, very warm, and it's not to the Caribbean. ;-)
(Source Photo: Andy Blumenthal)
November 12, 2014
Everything Else Is Anticlimactic
Before the music--60's and 70's (and some dancing)--started, there were a number of heartfelt speeches by distinguished veterans of the Vietnam War.
One lady was a nurse in Saigon working 16 hour days tending to the wounded and dying from the battlefield. She joined the army after 8 of her high school friends from her small hometown were killed in the war. The nurse told us how on the flight to Nam, they were told to look to the person on the immediate right and left of you, becuase one of you will not be coming home.
Another speaker was a special forces Army Ranger who was fighting in North Vietnam on very dangerous covert missions. He led many draftees, who he said had only minimal training, yet fought bravely on missions with bullets flying overhead and mortars and rockets pounding their positions. He described one situation where he knelt down to look at a map with one of his troops, and as they were in that psition half a dozen bullets hit into the tree right above their heads--if they had not been crouched down looking at the map, they would've both been dead.
A third speaker was a veteran who had been been hit by a "million dollar shot" from the enemy--one that didn't kill or cripple him, but that had him sent him to a hospital for 4-6 weeks and then ultimately home from the war zone. He told of his ongoing activities in the veterans community all these years, and even routinely washing the Veteran's Wall Memorial in Washington D.C.
Aside from the bravery and fortitude of all these veterans, what was fascinating was how, as the veterans reflected, EVERYTHING else in their lives was anticlimactic after fighting in the war. The nurse for example read us a poem about the ladies in hell (referring to the nurses caring for the wounded) and how they never talked about the patients in Nam because it was too painful, and when they returned home, they had the classic symptoms of PTSD including the hellish nightmares of being back there.
Indeed, these veterans went through hell, and it seems that it was the defining moment in (many if not most of) their lives, and they are reliving it in one way or another every moment of every day.
Frankly, I don't know how they did it being dropped on the other side of the world with, as the special forces Vet explained, maps that only told you in very general terms wherer you even where, and carrying supplies for at least 3 days at a time of C-rations, water, ammo, and more--and with the enemy all around you ("there were no enemy lines in this war; if you stepped out of your units area, it was almost all 'unfriendly.'"). One Vet said that if you were a 2nd Lt., like she was, your average lifespan over there was 20 minutes.
The big question before we go to war and put our troops in harms way is what are we fighting for and is it absolutely necessary. For the troops being sent to the battlezone, everything else is just anticlimactic--they have been to hell.
(Source Photo: Dannielle Blumenthal)
November 4, 2012
Heaven and Hell
It asks: "Do you want heaven or hell?"
Two incidents with some neighbors this weekend reminded me of this message:
The first--there were some boxes put out for donation to Hurricane Sandy victims, and we saw one of the neighbors actually take stuff out of the charity boxes. Was he needy too--I don't really know. But I do wonder whether he'll enjoy his new jacket, at the expense of someone perhaps homeless and who lost everything in the Superstorm.
The second--I was hauling a really big box--it was extremely heavy and I come to find out that the wheels on the dolly were flat. It was nearly impossible to move on the the bare metal. All of a sudden, a wonderful person comes over--a stranger--and says "here, let me help you!" He accompanied me, pushing with me all the way to my destination. This guy was like an angel.
Heaven or hell--we are tested everyday in our actions--some choose one, while some seem to gravitate to the other.
Finally, I can't say again how grateful I am to the neighbor who went out of his way to help me--and in a difficult situation--I hope that I can learn from him!
(Source Photo: Andy Blumenthal)
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