LAST STOP NOT BROOKLYN

the philosopher says sin is hell's echo in our life through its ambassadors to us ... and that not all suffering brings us to god ... some of it is a touch of hell ... a foresense of it ... that this makes sense is because hell makes no sense ... is fundamentally perverse ... why would a place whose reason for being is a concentration of focus on the individual self call for companions ... why does misery whose impulse is to shed all connections in its pain love company ... are they still trying for the good even in hell ... still looking for god even if they choose a god-substitute instead of the real thing ... have they no choice in having being but to want it in the strongest measure ... still to want something other than the self if only to subdue it to the self then to ignore it ... never to be able to resist these appeals from outside the self even as you choose constantly only the self ... whatever their motivation what does it mean to say that there is this two-way road on the map and in good repair ... every rest stop of course another good intention ... would you not say attend to the traffic lights the police and the signs ... especially the sign for the nearest exit

cf kreeft, suffering, ch 10.3