The train trip from heaven
This piece of writing also went out to my RealStevo.com email newsletter this morning.
Everyone is always saying that things are from hell...
“The weekend from hell,”
“the mother-in-law from hell,”
“the train trip from hell.”
Some Hollywood rag attributes the creation of this phrase "[noun] from hell" to comedian Richard Lewis.
It sort of fits his salty, New York-ish edginess and neuroticism.
If you watch his old stuff, you see he was kind of like an old curmudgeon when he was doing standup, even from a young age. Little did you know he was something of a decorated wordsmith:
“…[Lewis] is credited in the Yale Book of Quotations as originating the phrase.
“Speaking to Interview magazine in 2008, Lewis said “the truth of the matter is that whatever gift I have as a comedian, most of it was in the phrase ‘from hell.’ I’m credited with popularizing that phrase because I felt victimized by everything.’”
Fascinating to think that just a few decades ago, not a single American said “the day from hell” or “the child from hell” or “the neighbor from hell.”
Though Lewis is credited with the creation of the phrase, this is not to say that Lewis did not occasionally invoke heavenly things. For example he referenced his willingness to pray. For example, three years ago he tweeted:
“I pray you protect yourselves and loved ones and get vaccinated.”
In case anyone questions the earnestness of this prayer, this message was followed by a red heart emoji and a yellow praying hands emoji.
In internet land, such emphasis makes it clear that someone is really praying earnestly and sincerely, not at all using the phrase “I pray” lightly.
Perhaps I jest about his sincerity.
And perhaps I should move on from talking about this vaccine injured individual, who died suddenly on February 27 of this year.
Was it from the jab?
I have no idea.
I find it good to have a bias toward blaming everything on the jab for now.
It could have been his former cocaine addiction (which he survived)
or his former crystal meth addiction (which he survived),
but his trust the science addiction he might not have survived.
Fascinating to think that Anthony Fauci could be more dangerous than meth.
If you use demented Google and search “from hell,” you learn that Johnny Depp and Heather Graham were in a 2001 movie called “from hell.” There were all kinds of other cultural references too for that phrase in my Google search.
There’s a book by Alan Moore of the same name upon which the movie appears to be based.
I cannot imagine myself watching the movie to see if the “from hell” title is sarcastic, in hopes of learning that Hollywood made this movie to talk about the joys of heaven.
Some people think that the best thing Alan Moore made is measured in dollars and cents.
They would be wrong.
Whether he wanted it or not, he earned himself a reputation in the annals of freedom literature.
You see, Alan Moore is the man who made V for Vendetta, a book and later a movie that recreates the November 5 Guy Fawkes Gunpowder Plot of 1605 in modern terms.
I watch that movie some years on November 5.
It’s a beautiful movie to get a freedom minded person excited about freedom. Also it is poetic.
In contrast to using Google to search “from hell,” when you use Google to search “from heaven,” you do not get any major cultural references. This might have to do with the fact that we do not use the term “from heaven,” as much as we use the term “from hell.”
That probably says a little about where our minds are, culturally speaking.
I’m not sure if that is a great thing.
I wonder how many times you can be unlike the neurotic octuple-jabbed Richard Lewis, and use the phrase “from heaven” this week.
Such as “the mother-in-law from heaven,” or “the weekend from heaven,” or “the train trip from heaven.”
But I don’t mean lightly using it.
I mean really using it and meaning sincerely that you believe God sent you a mother-in-law who raised your spouse and is a blessed part of your life.
It’s kind of lousy to complain about your mother-in-law. It ends up showing up in the relationship, whether you like it or not.
The woman raised your spouse.
Doesn’t she deserve the credit of you approaching her with the mindset that she is the mother-in-law from heaven instead of the mother-in-law from hell?
If you approach a lot of things like that, it can really improve a lot of situations, especially those that you do not realize are rotten partly because you are approaching them with a bad attitude.
And I think plenty of things are from heaven,
for example — and I realize some people may think this trite —
I believe sincerely that God sent me the gift of a train trip that was a blessing to me and many others.
It felt like it was from heaven, it was so amazing.
And if you heard more about it, you might even find yourself agreeing.
It went beyond the ordinary.
It didn’t start out like that.
No, it started out pretty weird.
And with lots of stuff I am neither used to, nor familiar with, nor all that capable of making sense of.
And that is where my next book starts.
I haven’t decided if it will ever make it to Amazon or into print or out into the rest of the world.
But for my readers, for the next five days, it is available and it is ready to be read.
It is PDF only at this point.
Not sure if it’s going to go to press.
We shall see what happens.
It’ll cost you. Not a lot.
But it will still cost.
Neat story.
Almost hard for me to believe that I lived through it.
It's a quick read.
Tap here to have it for your weekend reading enjoyment:
https://realstevo.com/products/the-amtrak-vignettes
Allan Stevo