Here I am back in Manhattan, visiting friends. I found out at my one friend’s memorial service Sunday that he didn’t die of a heart attack as originally thought. The medical examiner’s report revealed his death was due to multiple fractures to his skull and massive head trauma resulting from tripping and falling down a long flight of old, unevenly-worn marble stairs.

At least that makes much more sense since my friend was in impeccable physical health, as those who saw him earlier that day testified. He looked remarkably tan and fit from his daily practice of swimming in the Mediterranean Sea next to his beachside condo in Tel Aviv.

Since my friend’s wife was in Israel at the time of his fall, a close friend of mine (who I’m currently staying with) was the one to identify the body from photos presented him at a West Village morgue. He said my friend’s face looked gray and lifeless and had a little bit of blood on it. His facial expression was one of, “I can’t control what’s happening.”

Last night a few of us talked about whether my friend was in hell now. So many people have commented about how he must be “laughing down on us,” and “finding humor in all this attention given to him,” etc., etc., acting as if they’re sure he’s in heaven and that we’ll all be re-united with him some day.

I find this to be the pervasive misconception of our populace these days.

*****

At a bible conference I just returned from in Pigeon Forge, TN (and I do truly love the feedback given me about my site!) Jordan spoke one night about hell and what it’s like. Afterward I asked him, “Do people in hell have total mental recall of their earthly life?” The answer is yes. Jordan answered yes again to my question, “Are they in communication with their ‘friends and relatives’ who are there with them?”

The idea is a man in hell does not change his negative attitude toward God. He believes in his mind that God did wrong by him in committing him to an eternity of physical and mental torture. He doesn’t accept that God had the right solution for him in offering His Son as a payment for sin.

There are rings in hell and while really bad dudes (Hitler, Saddam, fake TV preachers, on and on) are stationed in the hotter, lower rings, they are in the same “room” with the old ladies who never committed a crime or even used a swear word but failed to recognize they needed a Savior.

When I told Jordan about my friend and how he was unsaved, he said in empathy, “There’s no way to mitigate the grief of a losing a loved one who you understand to be in hell.”

*****

Arriving at LaGuardia Saturday afternoon I remembered to purchase a seven-day Metro pass that gives me unlimited bus and subway rides for my visit.

One of my favorite things to do when in NYC is to read the daily New York Post and local edition of the New York Times. The cover story for all the NY papers upon my arrival was about a pregnant mother and wife from Queens who was mowed down on the sidewalk in Midtown right after work by a drunken grocery delivery van driver who had been yelling out cat calls.

By sheer coincidence yesterday, I passed the very spot where she was killed. There was one of those makeshift Catholic shrine set-ups at the site with lots of burning candles, teddy bears and bouquets of multi-colored flowers. The newspaper article with her picture was taped to the building stone next to the pavement block that was still stained by her violent death.

On the cover of the Sunday Post was a story about how axed Wall Street career women were turning to stripping at high-end gentleman’s clubs around town, making tips equaling a $160,000-a-year salary!

One good-looking 28-year-old recently fired from her job as a financial analyst for Morgan Stanley posed for a photo with a very short business skirt and a $20 bill stuffed into her thigh-length black hose. A 27-year-old real estate broker was quoted as saying, “With dancing, the money is instant.”

In yesterday’s New York Times were lots of other stories revealing the times we live in today.

An A-section headline read, “Iraqis Snap Up Hummers, Seeing Them as Icons of Power.” A successful 37-year-old Hummer dealership owner in Baghdad reasoned in the article, “Iraqis love them because they’re really a symbol of power . . . In Iraq, people judge you by your car, and you’re not a man without one.”

On the cover of the Business section was the story, “Cable News Stokes Political Fever.” John D. Podesta, president of the Center for American Progress, who served as chief of staff under Bill Clinton, argued, “On the cable networks, the intensity of the conflict is what drives their shows, so everything is turned into a referendum. “It’s worse than it was four years ago, and its worse than it was four years before that. It’s on a new slope.”

Well, that’s it for today (my two hours of free Starbucks wifi is about to expire!). Write more tomorrow.