Basement Metaphors 1.0: The Underworld

 

Let's get dark right away. The basement is underground (mostly -- it's a daylight basement with a big window onto the world; I will address this further in a post on our parallels with "Laverne & Shirley"). But mostly, it's a subterranean domicile.

The word "underground" conjures THE DEAD, as in "dead & buried" in the ground (well, it doesn't literally conjure the dead, just thoughts of them). And then, of course, deeper lies the UNDERWORLD! Hades, Sheol, Yomi, Xibalba, Hell. HELL! That's the worst! Not all "underworlds" of the our cultures hold negative connotations (see "Annwn" in the pre-Christian era). But Hell? Forget it -- it's awful!

If you believe in that sort of thing. But why does "underground" get such a bad rap? Is it just a fear of darkness? Why is Hell down? Why not, oh, just a bit to the left? Lenny Bruce puts it best:

"And I'm confused about the direction of Heaven. It's not up there, because the earth revolves, and sometimes you can go to Hell at 8:30, and Heaven at 12:06." (From his autobiography "How to Talk Dirty & Influence People.)

Seeing as how our soon-to-be new residence in the basement does offer a street-level view, we're sort of in between "Heaven & Hell" -- in Limbo. Between Here and There. Really between There and There. Which would be Here.

So forget all that metaphorical nonsense (at least until my next "Metaphors" post) -- wherever we go, HERE we are!