Novel Report

For those who believe. Thanks, because I'm now at 20,000 words and going strong. Kaching!  This slow and steady pace appears quite effective. My system is to spend several weeks mulling, then one night, sit down and voila! three-four thousand words. Not including the fifteen minute free writes, the three stories I'm working on, updating the blog and balancing out life. BOOM. Feeling like a tank. 

Thoughts on Hell.

       You know. I read once from C.S. Lewis that hell is a silent grumbling on into infinity. Since then I have noticed unhappy people whose complaints have fallen on deaf ears. Even my own complaints have fallen on silence.

       When it comes to hell, I am always reminded of a story I once read called the Man with Enormous Wings. The people exploited this man with enormous wings, and though the man never once complained, the people's sins by way of natural consequences made them very unhappy. The idea being that mankind creates their own hell on Earth. Hell. Heaven. It's all in the fruit of our actions. 

        I've noticed this when I go about my daily life. When I go into refrigerator and find there is no food because I was too lazy to go to the store, I notice it. Every time I go into my dirty bathroom and wonder why girls cringe when they're in my apartment, I notice it. Every time my car groans because I fail to take care of it, I notice my self made hell.  And these are just sins of sloth. Imagine the self-hells of the other sins.

        The most hellish moments have been caused not by some supernatural force, but by man's hand. 911, colonization, Hiroshima. But man is capable of great beauty too and most often our beauty shines brightest alongside gestures of love and kindness. It's all in the fruit.

        I have also read somewhere that hell was the gnashing of teeth. I think about this every time I gnash my teeth together in frustration. I've noticed that when I gnash my teeth, its caused by a deficit between something I want and something the world wants from me. I want to watch Netflix, but I have to work on a paper. I want to stay home and do nothing, but my body is itching for exercise. I want to be first in line, but it's another person's turn.  I wonder what would happen when we stopped wanting, and started listening.