January 31, 2011. It is the 3-year anniversary of my first heart attack.
I say “my first” because most of my relatives are known to have many.
Now I, too, will have more than one, and then, I will be no more.
It is with that in mind that I unlock the Dark and Dampy Dungeon
and share my strange and unique thoughts and view of things.
I was once asked what “From The Dark and Dampy Dungeon” was,
and why I used such a depressing and off-putting tag as my signature.
I hesitated to answer and explain because anyone who knows about
a dungeon and has one, also knows that anyone who doesn’t would
never understand. I turned from the question without comment, then,
but I have since realized that dungeons are more plentiful and more
misunderstood even by those who have one than I originally thought.
Many don’t remember the Boogie Man and all the things that go bump
in the night, those imagined evils that really existed and caused pain
and misery and terror in our sleep, everything that degraded or belittled
us, and every awkward moment or unfortunate incident that ever made
us think that we didn’t belong in the world into which we were cast.
It is a dedicated decision to remember or forget a moment of despair
and such hopelessness that can make one wish to curl up and die.
Some push such moments to the very depths of their minds to forget,
an event survived and best never revisited because of its hazard,
and because there was never really any way with which to manage it.
I know of these things because I do remember. I choose to remember.
There are no dark corners in my mind in which to store my torments.
I prefer to have them accessible and easily retrievable for future use,
because I believe that everything experienced is a lesson to be learned,
and any lesson unlearned will be taught again and again. And so,
there is a place where these lessons exist, where tears never dry, and
agony and sorrow that left open wounds in my heart are tended by
cautious attention and constant care until they can be managed, and
the solution to the lesson is realized and heals each wound to a scar.
The place is known as a dungeon, and my dungeon has a name:
From The Dark and Dampy Dungeon
