January 23, 2015

Something Wonderful: This Is Water

Posted by gerardvanderleun at January 23, 2015 11:00 PM
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"It is impossible to speak in such a way that you cannot be misunderstood." -- Karl Popper N.B.: Comments are moderated and may not appear immediately. Comments that exceed the obscenity or stupidity limits will be either edited or expunged.

Still to much money out there. Almost every welfare case I see a camera shot of is carrying bottled water and an obamaphone. I have neither and don't miss them.

Posted by: BillH at January 24, 2015 8:05 AM

Any retiree who falls for AARP is either a raging liberal or a sucker. (Yes, I know that may be redundant.)

Posted by: BillH at January 24, 2015 8:10 AM

AARP is a front organization not unlike Organizing for America. Seem to do a lot of stuff for the Old Folks (and I'm almost there!!), but they also purposefully do things to subvert the process.

For the folks.

Posted by: David at January 24, 2015 9:28 AM

AARP spent millions of dollars, promoting Obamacare. And, in campaign contributions to 0zero, both in '08 and '12.

Plus, they're major contributors to many of the most virulent anti-gun organizations out there.

In short, they are to be shunned, avoided, mocked and ridiculed, at every opportunity. As is their membership. I cut 'em no slack....and if they tell me it's for "the benefits", I ask 'em if they've enjoyed selling their souls so cheaply.

This is the only way to attack them. Make it deeply personal to each and every AARP member you meet. Pin the blame for what AARP is, directly upon them.

Might only get 1% or 2% to drop out and quit...but any impact is better than none. And it sure beats the hell out of AARP growing ever larger and stronger.


Jim
Sunk New Dawn
Galveston, TX

Posted by: Jim at January 24, 2015 11:26 AM

The Tyranny of Mundane Choices.

All the mind clutter of determining Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner, what shoes to wear, the clothes to wear has increasingly become a burden to the point that I DO NOT WANT TO CHOOSE.

The problem is that there are simply some maintenance items you HAVE TO CHOOSE every single day.

On a workday - to keep peak performance:

You HAVE to eat at least 3 meals a day.
You HAVE to shower (unless you like that slimey unclean feeling and want to impose your 'aura' upon others.
You HAVE to maintain your possessions
You HAVE to get regular sleep (minimum of 8 hours).
You HAVE to do you job.

... then ... play.

If you DO NOT CHOOSE to do the MINIMUM of what is mentioned above, there WILL be problems.

Choices must be made for the humdrum maintenance of the day. But if you MUST choose, why not have it the EXACT same choice every single day and leave the REAL and NEW choices for playtime?

Thus do I eat the same food everyday (simple, easy to make, nutritious, and calories counted) have the same start-up/shut-down sequence (on a workday). I could choose to have pizza everyday, but it requires too much work for hte mundane - not to mention the angst about weight control. I was never a habits kind of guy, but when you do the same thign for decades, it actually lightens the burden of the choice. I had NEVER thought that choice would be a burden, and yet... there you are. :)

One more thing:

The issue of 'Doing the things I do not feel like doing'.

This is key for anyone who has a honey-do list (if you have things on a honey-do list longer than a month - you have a problem and potentially will have major problems in hte future as the gargantuan weight of these things on your mind will also drag you down to immobility.

IF you do not have planned time EVERYDAY for "Doing the things you don;t feel like doing", they WONT get done (trust me - battled for several years on this one). Without keeping this buffer completely clear, it will fill up and drag you down. If it gets too big, then it starts to depress you. Thus must it be a fixed feature in your life. "Doing things you don;t feel like doing" easily falls under the 'Tyranny of Mundane Choices' as they are choices you MUST face eventually, otherwise there are consequences. If the mess gets too big, there are no adults out there to help you out of this self generated mess.

Being that I have a penchant to make a project out of just about anything, these 'honey do' tasks could take up.. well... an entire day and then some.

Thus do I use the MMR axion: Any job on the 'honey-do' list must meet Miminum maintenacne requirement of -

1. Is it in the designated location?
2. Is it is working order?
3. Is it relatively clean?

The 'Honey do list is populated during morning prayer (Memory of the blessings that make my days better) and choices made as to which one(s) I am working on today. DO NOT have a written list as the brain will bring to attention those blessing that need the immediate attention (then the potential problems). Right now, I have so many issues at hand, my days are ... filled. :(

But if you have at least one block of time a day devoted to this job (and you get on top of all immediate and potential issues), you will never drowned in the ;resulting mess (as I am now).

Evening prayers (Vespers) is giving thanks for the blessings of the day and has some calming effect right before sleep (still very difficult for me and I have great need of sleeping pills...)

I'm still in 'the belly of the beast' and up to my eyeballs in work, but I do see I may just get out of this mess. As you know, I have struggled for some years now, but I think I see "some light up ahead". :)

So to beat the 'Tyranny of Mundane Choices' is to reduce those choices to the default of habit where you ALWAYS CONSCIOUSLY choose the same thing: Same route home, same cycle of clothes, same, same, same - unless you FEEL like doing otherwise, then choose otherwise - as its that OTHERWISE that you are here for, btw...

Posted by: cond0011 at January 24, 2015 4:10 PM

Don't know what AARP has to do with the video. Didn't see it mentioned.

For me the message of the video is about choosing to look at the world through eyes that see the connectedness of everything and with an attitude of thanksgiving.

On the rare occasions that I'm in a state of Grace, I'm always amazed by how aware I am of the stress, sadness, loneliness, and pain there is in other people. Many people are carrying heavy burdens of psychic pain and loss. But there are also those who seem centered, and, though they carry a burden (as do we all), have a brightness of spirit. Everywhere in life there are unsung heroes carrying on and bearing witness to the resilience of humans everywhere. At such times, I feel blessed to be a part of it all.

Posted by: Jimmy J. at January 24, 2015 8:27 PM

The bad days I experience now are better than the good days I used to have.
I consider that progress.

Posted by: chasmatic at January 24, 2015 10:26 PM

David Foster Wallace hung himself.

Posted by: Michael C. Ruble at January 25, 2015 12:59 PM

So. What.

Posted by: vanderleun at January 25, 2015 3:31 PM

A long, long time ago I did as Chasmatic suggested regarding the "list".

Bright and early Sat morn I attacked that "list" with wanton abandon.
1. Laundry room door swings open by itself.
Yank center pin, smack it with a hammer on the workbench vice, reinstall. Ah Perfect!

2. Mow yard, don't run over her Jasmine bush again, trim, blow. Done!

3. Take out the trash. ALL of it, and don't forget the small cans in all the bathrooms, and the bag of used cat litter on the back porch. Done!!

-----Take a smoke break

4. Wash HER car, and the inside, and the trunk where the bag of potting soil ripped open. Done!!!

5. Change one of the bulbs in the foyer chandelier. Go borrow 12' ladder, change bulb, take ladder back. Done!!!!

6. Go pick up HER mother from the airport, transport her to her home. Pick up milk, bread and cat litter. Done!!!!!

By now it's 6pm and I scratched all the things I had done off the list and what's that? Why, there are 6 NEW things on the bottom of the list! WTF????

This ain't a list!

It's a gd continuous conveyor belt run by a dictatorial tyrant bent on enslavement just because.

FTS

Guess what?
That list got lost and now stuff gets done as I notice it and when I feel like it.

The key to a long and happy marriage is a detached garage. What's love got to do with it?, as Tina used to say.

Posted by: ghostsniper at January 26, 2015 9:27 AM

While the description of the default setting and the power we have to change it is inspired and True, the seeds (maybe more like blooms) of moral relativism reveal that this man's water is rather cloudy. Perhaps this dark cloudiness played a role in his final decision. That is the so what.

Posted by: BroKen at January 28, 2015 7:38 AM

I agree that moral relativism is part of the dominant mental disease of our era but it seems like a long reach to a dubious conclusion about the Wallace suicide.

Posted by: vanderleun at January 28, 2015 9:33 AM

Is it a stretch from "There is no Truth." and "There is no Good." to "There is no hope."? I don't want to sound unsympathetic or cruel like the critics of Rick Warren after the suicide of his son and I know very little about Wallace's life and struggle. But when I first saw this video, as much as I was delighted by the beginning, when he said foolish things like " don't think I'm moralizing" (come on, of course you are! Just admit it.) and "not that any of this is true" (man, you've just shattered the foundation of everything you are saying!) I felt a deep, deep sadness. His plan for rising above and getting out of himself was grounded in himself. I am terribly sorry, but I think it must be said, "That leads only to despair."

Posted by: BroKen at January 31, 2015 4:28 AM