Afterpants: Nether Regions pt 16 (Limbo)

If you live in an English speaking country...you have most likely heard the word "limbo"

The word is used commonly to describe a place either in your mind or in actuality of "having to wait" or "not being able to do anything about your situation."

It's first use, of course, was in the Latin "Limbus", from the original councils of the Roman Catholic Church wherein it was decided that "Limbo is between heaven and hell and is reserved for the church patriarchs that died before Jeebus came to earth"

There is a debate in the church as to whether or not unbaptised children also have their own limbo and whether or not those dead kids will eventually be allowed into Heaven.

I don't want to spend a lot of effort discussing those last two points because the word Limbo itself implies an intermediate state and is therefore not RCC specific.

Many cultures have an idea of Limbo and not necessarily between "a good place" and "a bad place." Most of them are, however described as a sort of "nothing place"

Like...it's not beautiful or scary. Media has represented it in a number of ways...normally

in a well...it's all just plain white...or just foggy and there seems to be a light source but you can't tell where it's coming from. There's no night there, or weather. It's lukewarm temperature wise and it's apparently quite boring as there are no structures or other people around. An interesting example of this is in the last Harry Potter film where Harry is "killed" by Voldemort and ends up in an empty, white train station.

Another unique one is from "The Magicians" show/books where it' titled "The NietherLands" and it's described as "the place between all other places."

I like the idea of limbo as a description for a world between worlds. It feels true...like...if I travel from Tokyo to Ise...there is definitely a point on the map which is directly between those two cities. (hahaha...I was just thinking of what that place might be when I recalled that Google Earth can show me exactly what's there...hold on...I'll go look...

Ok...in a direct line between Ise and downtown Tokyo which is 308km, divide by half 154km...it puts you in the mountains directly west of Shizuoka...neat right?

Anyway, my point is, if there is more than one underworld...then there HAS to be a space which is between Nether Regions...if you know what I mean...

Anyway, I like the idea of Limbo (perhaps lose the Christian connotation) and I award it 4 out 5 Hellbriefs!