getting out of the hole

“It is easy to go down into hell; night and day, the gates of dark Death stand wide; but to climb back again, to retrace one’s steps to the upper air – there’s the rub, the task.” – Virgil

So.

There’s nothing like great literature to help you think about life.

I think this is his way of saying it sure is easier going down then up.

With anything.

But that’s the thing. No matter how far down you go, even to what feels like hell, you will have the chance to climb back out.

It takes a lot of strength of character, and most likely a shitload of persistence and resilience to do it, but it can be done. Yeah, it can be done <despite the fact it can get pretty dark in that hole>.

The quote also reminds me of one of my favorite West Wing scenes.

Leo tells Josh a story <In Episode #32 Noël>:

“This guy’s walking down the street when he falls in a hole. The walls are so steep he can’t get out.

“A doctor passes by and the guy shouts up, ‘Hey you. Can you help me out?’ The doctor writes a prescription, throws it down in the hole and moves on.

“Then a priest comes along and the guy shouts up, ‘Father, I’m down in this hole can you help me out?’ The priest writes out a prayer, throws it down in the hole and moves on

“Then a friend walks by, ‘Hey, Joe, it’s me can you help me out?’ And the friend jumps in the hole. Our guy says, ‘Are you stupid? Now we’re both down here.’ The friend says, ‘Yeah, but I’ve been down here before and I know the way out.'”

(the west wing clip: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZQJ6yqQRAQs)

I imagine I added this part to the Virgil thought because sometimes retracing your steps out of hell is … well … more than just a task.

Sometimes it is just a different kind of hell in itself.

And sometimes you need help.

In fact sometimes you need someone who has actually climbed back out.

Someone who has reemerged from the gates of dark Death. Someone who knows how to retrace your steps.

Now. This is a difficult thing to do. Asking for help as well as deciding who to trust. Because not all people who have actually visited hell and made it out are created equal. Just because they shared the experience does not make them the right ‘helper.’

So.

I can’t help you out on this one other than to make this observation. I believe everyone has to make this type of judgment, and decision, all by their lonesome.

Life has a nasty habit of testing almost all of us at one point or another.

And I also believe Life took a shitload of classes in varieties of hell just for … well … the hell of it.

Just to complete its education, to insure as it guided us through time we experienced all the good and bad we should, Life makes sure we visit all the places we should visit before we are done with this wacky thing called life.

I have used this quote before and a good friend of mine shared the infamous Winston Churchill quote “when in hell keep going” which is maybe the most important advice <obviously because if you stop, and stand still, hell will not go away so you stay>. And ‘keep going’ is possibly the most important thought because as Friedrich Nietzsche said … “And when you gaze long into an abyss the abyss also gazes into you.” Because if you fight the darkness of the hole by standing and fighting you run the risk of becoming the darkness itself. The abyss gazes back at you which means that when you begin to understand something you take a piece of it with you and it changes you.

But. That said.

Life isn’t, and shouldn’t be, a single’s match. At minimum it is a double’s match <at minimum to double the joys and halve the griefs> and at its best it is a team sport. Not to suggest visiting hell is a sport but hell is part of Life’s game … just one inning, quarter, period, portion, piece … and getting through it is easier, and sometimes necessary, if you are not doing it alone.

So, yes, you should keep going … but … well … maybe look around for some help at the same time. Because getting out of the hole is difficult and having some help cannot hurt your chances.