It isn’t the noise. The noise is a dull roar or echo from miles away. After a few days you don’t even notice the sounds anymore.

You might assume it’s the physical pain; that’s not a bad guess but it isn’t it. At a certain point your body goes numb. That point comes sooner than you would think. Most people don’t make it through the bamboo without their bodies going numb.

What breaks people, what truly forces them to a place that no person should have to be, is the light.

Try as you might but the light will consume you. You might think that closing your eyes will help, it wont. I’ve seen people close their eyes so hard they bled. Now your eyes burn from the blood and sweat and all its accomplished is to turn the hue of the light red.

Once you are in that place, the smell of mildew and sweat permeates your skin. The burn of the ropes around your arms and legs shoots through you. The echoing of noise vibrates your inner ear. The light…the light…. it pierces through you. It burns through your eyes and starts to chip away at your brain. It transcends suffering or pain.

You cannot understand this torture unless you’ve experienced it.  I pray, even for my enemies, that no one must ever endure such torture.

I’ve seen that there are some who have endured great pain, tragic loss, terrible suffering. For those who have come on hard times there must be a time of morning. This is our way. I’m not here to say that time has ended, it will live in many hearts I’m sure.  

I’ve come here today with the hopes to inspire those who have fallen down to rise again.

I am not attempting to take a side one way or the other, merely asking a question that I feel may help alleviate some of the hurt that has afflicted so many.

I do this because I strongly believe that it is what we live through, what our families go through, that makes us stronger.

This all boils down to a single question….

Are you going to give up?