I don’t agree with how many people come at me. I do appreciate dry wit, that isn’t it. That’s insulting and disrespectful and tinged with cynical negativity, an attack he’s been holding onto since I commented on his witticism which he correctly assessed as sarcasm and actual dry wit. I disagree with people who think that everyone should just respect them. Unless you’re willing to earn respect by giving it to each person, what’s the point of expecting it? And if all that is seen of you are cutting comments and nothing of actual wit or intellect, why would or should it merit anything but contempt in certain settings? I’d like to know more about what surreptitious disagrees with me on, but I don’t think he feels comfortable enough to indulge or discuss in depth, perhaps he fears an argument. Perhaps he fears actually admitting to agreeing with a lot of what I say because he might get the same treatment he sees me getting. I think that a lot of things are up for speculation but nobody wants to speculate, yet everyone is opinionated, which is extreme speculation tinged with accusation. And people claim to be happy with this.
I am less interested these days in having a dogmatic worldview and more interested in the worldviews of others so see myself as an observer rather than
as a participant. More as a processor of knowledge and information without the need for subjective interpretation of it too. Of course I am still human so
will have my own biases and prejudices like everyone else. But the volume level is lower now as I accept the world more as it is and less as I want it to be
I am not interested in changing it as that is beyond my capability so I focus instead on what I can change namely me. And alongside that I have been slowly
and subconsciously letting go over the last few years. So I think these two shifts in perception are my minds way of telling me I am only passing through this
life so it is not the final destination. Of course on a purely logical level I already knew this but have now come to accept it on an emotional level too. And so
death can take me any time it wants. Now there is zero evidence that it is anything but eternal and pain free so that shall be my default position less it turns
out to be something else. But the time for that will be then not now
No but you can’t please everybody.
Volkswagen is the cheapest of the good cars. Makes me think of a redneck bitch with a michael kors purse. Or a dude who wears a citizen or invicta watch. So cheapskates who want to have nice cars buy those. Most of them are terrible cars. I would never drive a volkswagen.
Anne rice is the only entertaining books in the library. Everything else is pretentious and bland.
Richard dawkins is pretentious and bland.
People get careers so they aren’t homeless bums or wage slaves.
But I always have this concerns: when we live our lives, we have to do something that is against our nature: for example: suppose you have had strong opinions against business people, but the only job you can find is to be a sales person, so you have to dress up, learn the business etiquette, and learn and speak their language (profit, labor costs, blue sea…) on the one hand, life push you into a direction, you have to learn those lessons in that direction and you are hoping to have your own business one day so there will not be a boss watching your back and counting how many customers you have called everyday but on the other hand you do not want to go to that direction, you do not want to wear a stupid business suit, deceive your customers, you do not want to make so much phone calls every day because you are a quite introverted person, and you think all business people are making the profits off the working people, what should you do?
These Stoic philosophers gave me a solution:
Is it the only solution? Do we have to be like this?
as Alain de Botton explained:
Then is resignation the only answer?
It is not as you can freely accept it too
What are the best ways to spend your years ?
Always remain conscious of the realization that Death may be just around the corner for you whether it is tomorrow, next week, next year. Time moves quickly. Death’s time is not necessarily our time.
Have a melding of the minds between Life your life and your death and then act accordingly.
Choose the life you wish to have, in each moment, in different moments. Let it be YOUR life and not that of another. Realize that that River is ever flowing, changing and death may be just around the bend so live your life with Death on your left shoulder always. It is capable of whispering to you in ways which give practical wisdom. Death is a beacon. How far away it is depends on yourself and Death Itself.
Always realize that our behavior has both positive and negative consequences. If we could care less about those negatives, consider those who do care about those consequences becoming a part of their life.
That’s all I have.
If life gives us lemons and we decide to make lemonade out of it, is that necessarily resignation? or defeat?
A practical, stoic attitude and behavior is not resignation.
Who knows but that the dog might come to enjoy trotting behind the cart - see it as a different kind of game.
But his day will come. This he knows. So he simply decides to enjoy the moment.
He chooses life and a different kind of experience over death.
To fight this new experience which may, for a moment, go against his nature is creating a slave within him.
Gees, ilp is certainly a snail today!!!
I do. Harbal is a valued pecker I’d put in my esteemed hall of shamed.
Precisely. We don’t have time to waste…so why not spend it with each other. Why cannot we meld our hands and minds and enjoy each other’s wonderful company, whilst we discuss philosophy and magical things as we sip lemonade by the hearth?
If life gives you lemons, you make lemonade, you said this yourself Dragonheart.
What do you mean by this? could you elaberate on it?
But can you? Suppose you work in a factory everyday and you are responsible for pressing a button and then take the finished parts, or suppose you work in a company as a sales assistant and you are required to make 100 phone calls every day… In circumstance like this, could you really choose the life you wish to have and enjoy every moment?
To each his own, I guess. I only read two of Ann Rice’s books - “The Wolf Gift” and “The Wolves of Midwinter”. I love wolves and i thought those books were great - all about transcendence and transformation. More than just simply guilty pleasure.
Coming to terms with our inner nature, our changes, embracing them and balancing them and then becoming MORE human as a result of all of that - paradoxical it may seem - but that’s real life - except for the fact that we don’t actually become wolves, though we do often revert back to our animal natures and “give up” our humanity.
You would be surprised what you can learn about life, self, in books such as those. There is a lot of reading between the lines where truth can be found and philosophical questions.
Actually, I’m pretty sure life gives us plenty of time to waste. It’s not all that precious, anyway. Time kills us all the while as us killing time. Quid pro quo. Life can either kill you sweetly, or in very nasty ways.
above us only sky
Can you still choose the life you wish to have from the time you leave work to the time you go to bed? I do realize that we need to wind down first.
You could also choose to see Possibilities, reflect on what you might want to do other than what you’re doing, have faith in yourself, and go for it. You never know until you try. If you don’t succeed, you’re not a loser. What’s the saying - try try again.
No one enjoys every moment! Life would get quite stale if we didn’t have the negative to compare it to the positive in order to appreciate the positive.
Yes, I realized that can choose the way I live my life, thank you, Arcturus Descending. there are lots of wisdom in your words? may I ask where did you get those wisdom? 
To be according to principle. If I don’t wish to be referenced in such way, I live so as to ensure that that way of life isn’t shown to me elsewhere. E.g. to live so that no one has to experience being known as a migrant, or a national subject, or an employee, or a hacker or a tenant etc.
To live so that instead of just replicating an experience, I project the experience elsewhere, resolving reality. Another example is that the comments on Facebook is a replicated experience, but to resolve reality by projecting the comments thread on whatever Facebook page onto something such as the populace of Europe, or the history of the 18th century, or the history of the Ottoman Empire.
When we are in our twenties we are standing at the crossroad of our life, it is a crossroad because we have to choose a career seriously and seriously decide what we want to do in the rest of our life.
I don’t know whether you feel making those choices difficult or not, for me I found it really hard, because of two reasons (1). I have (or seemly have) so many options to choose from, but I cannot know for sure the consequence of each option, at best, I can only guess (2). I want to find a career/direction that I really feel passionate about, but for all the options listed below, not a single one makes me feel 100% passionate.
Here is an incomplete list of my options: 1. I can leave home and go to a monastery and become a monk (which I have contemplated occasionally);
or 2. I can go to an African country or Arabic country and be an interpreter;
or 3. I can study film-making and then help a movie producer and then be an independent documentary producer (I love watching documentaries and I have read some film-making),
or 4. I can open a shop online and make a living by selling various gadgets…
In the past two years I have changed jobs several times (bulldozer salesman, insurance policy seller, private online tutor, freight service salesman and project assistant in a factory…) I switched jobs so quickly because I want to do none of those jobs for the rest of my life and I do not consider them very ethical; I only do them because I was forced by my situation to do them but I do not feel passionate about any of those jobs at all.
Yesterday evening I “made up my mind” and tell myself that go to an African country or Arabic country and be an interpreter, but this morning when I went to the library to read some related books I once again started hesitating and asked “do you really feel you want to spend your next ten years to do this?”
Did you experience something similar before? How did you make those big decisions and go through this period of life?
Did you ever find a career/direction you feel passionate about? Or is this wish of finding a lovable career simply another youthful illusion?
I read Anne Rice’s book about the Devil. Devil is a teacher.
And I suppose it’s right, I feel like I’ve learned not to be evil after my encounter with the Beast.