My Idea of Hell

I have my own idea of Hell. It’s not the traditional vision of endless torture in a fiery pit, or a lonely eternity in the darkness of the abyss. At least in the traditional version of Hell, the demons are having fun torturing the damned. For it to be a true Hell, everyone must be suffering intensely, both the torturers and the tortured.

Hell is a long lineage of angels brutally forcing themselves and their children to behave like demons, or a long lineage of demons sanctimoniously preaching to their children about behaving like an angel. We’re somewhere in between. And if we could learn to accept our complicated selves instead of aspiring to one ideal or another, we might be able to get out.