I have a very good friend who believes that hell may in fact be the world that we are in currently as opposed to a separate dimension of fire and brimstone that some of us may be headed for in the afterlife. For all that I know and all that I have lived through she may very well be right. Take my current living situation for example. I stay with a few different friends here and there but for the most part I live with a friend who I met while living together at a homeless shelter previously. We stay in a neighborhood where the streets are filled with all kinds of trash from potato chip bags and beer bottles to people's clothing and furniture. Police helicopters are blaring overhead and shining their spotlights through the windows often and dozens of squad cars and swat vehicles come in to cordon off several city blocks at a time while conducting investigations for violent crimes. A few times while driving here from work late at night I've seen a yellow tarp covering someone's body that had just expired.

There was a huge rodent problem just a few weeks back where we caught more than half a dozen mice in only about a month's time. Roaches are all over the sidewalks at night and stray dogs and cats roam around unattended with chunks of fur missing from, and battle scars covering their little bodies. Both women and men are selling their bodies on street corners. Drunken people and the homeless are yelling obscenities and talking to themselves both night and day. Gun shots and the sounds of people fighting are a constant. Parents or, whoever these so-called adults might be, are often neglecting and mistreating their children with their excuse being some kind of tough love bullshit. Drugs and alcohol are everywhere. Finding a parking space at night can take me 20-30 minutes, easy, and several blocks from where we stay. Cars are stolen on a regular basis and it's literally just a matter of time before mine is taken.

The only reason I wrote this is because I couldn't take a nap before work due to one of my "neighbors" blasting their beat music. The culprits are two apartments over from this one and I still couldn't sleep despite using earplugs and covering my head with a pillow. The "noise" is horrible but that isn't the worst of it at all. The base is so freakin' loud that I can feel it pounding against the organs within my body. Can you imagine how self-concerned a person would have to be to do something like that? Can you believe how many of us have truly lost our way... our minds, our hearts and our souls? This may not be hell but it sure as hell isn't heaven. I'm gonna try and at least shut my eyes for a while before I head out for work. God help me! God help us all.