The "Life is..." thread.

[emjay]

And the isolation of it sucks... everyone has to face their own trials alone. There are friends and family, sympathy and empathy, but ultimately everyone's phenomenal experience is their own and their own alone. I wish we could share consciousness. I wish, like a vulcan mind meld, we could connect with other minds, and share and diminish their pain. I wish CD didn't have to face his pain alone.

For me the good news is that a circle of support and true friendship makes all the difference in the world.

In the end everyone is alone but we all share our aloneness in common and when people get together and form close friendships they can share their humanity with each other and hold each other up, if only a little.

Hehe, sorry I'm feeling a lot better, in a very sentimental mood.

To go with the part I bolded:

The suffering or the bad memories are as important as the good memories, and the good experiences. If you sort of, can imagine life as being 99% of the time quite linear, and most of the time you're in a state of neither happiness nor sadness. And then that 1% of the time you experience moments of very crystalised happiness, or crystalised sadness, or loneliness or depression. And I believe all of those moments are very pertinant. It's like I said to you, that for me it's mostly those crystalised moments of melancholy which are more inspirational to me. And in a strange way they become quite beautiful in their own way. Music that is sad, melancholic, depressing, is in a kind of perverse way more uplifting. I find happy music extremely depressing, mostly - mostly quite depressing. It's particularly this happy music that has no spirituality behind it - if it's just sort of mindless party music, it'd be quite depressing. But largely speaking, I was the kind of person that responds more to melancholia, and it makes me feel good. And I think the reason for this is, I think if you respond strongly to that kind of art, it's because in a way it makes you feel like you're not alone. So when we hear a very sad song, it makes us realise that we do share this kind of common human experience, and we're all kind of bonded in sadness and melancholia and depression.

I do agree with you Hammy, and your quote, but I also agree with what I said; there are some things that we have to face alone as if there was no other consciousness in existence or we were the first to experience it... that is the conscious condition; some things don't come with a manual and no amount of accumulated or shared knowledge/comfort through the millennia can prepare us for it... no-one can do it for us; we have to find our own way through, alone.

[Arkilogue]

I do agree with you Hammy, and your quote, but I also agree with what I said; there are some things that we have to face alone as if there was no other consciousness in existence or we were the first to experience it... that is the conscious condition; some things don't come with a manual and no amount of accumulated or shared knowledge/comfort through the millennia can prepare us for it... no-one can do it for us; we have to find our own way through, alone.

Find a tree and take a rest in it's crown. Let the wind rock you, let the birds sing to you and let them whisper the secrets of the universe to you...alone.





"Got my eyes peeled both wide open, and I got a glimpse
Of my innocence, got back my inner sense
Baby got it, still got it...."

[Expired]

Life is like a pubic hair stuck to the toilet, you soon get pissed off.

[CloverGrace]

Life is what only death can steal from us

[account_inactive]

Life is like a pubic hair stuck to the toilet, you soon get pissed off.

Lovely.

[RozKek]

good.

[Thumpalumpacus]

Life is pretty goddamned good, from where I stand. I've got the basic requirements of food, breathable air, water, and a roof over my head; medical care, albeit slow and occasionally incompetent; material items which provide comfort, recreation, and answer curiosity (my guitars, the Internet, pen and paper, books, a music collection); a natural world that, despite some despoilment, still provides me with moments of awe and sublime peace; and most importantly, loving family and friends who enrich my life with meaning even when they don't know it.

I reckon I'm a pretty lucky guy.

Ever diminishing scope; the comforting lies we are told or tell ourselves in our youth - you can do anything, be anything - gradually or not so gradually giving way to the cold, hard, constricting  reality that er, no you can't.

One thing I love about growing older is coming to grips with reality on reality's terms. Doing so forces me to probe my own depths and I come out with a better understanding of not only reality, but my own self. The older I get, the more Stoicism makes sense, outside of the deism stuff.

[account_inactive]

Ever diminishing scope; the comforting lies we are told or tell ourselves in our youth - you can do anything, be anything - gradually or not so gradually giving way to the cold, hard, constricting  reality that er, no you can't.

I can relate to that.

[Thumpalumpacus]

Life is a sowing, a reaping and a learning what not to sow. Especially nothing.

And then there's this 80 year old Chinese guy who's still plowing and cropping with a smile.



'

Indeed. The wise man nurtures relationships.

[emjay]

Ever diminishing scope; the comforting lies we are told or tell ourselves in our youth - you can do anything, be anything - gradually or not so gradually giving way to the cold, hard, constricting  reality that er, no you can't.

One thing I love about growing older is coming to grips with reality on reality's terms. Doing so forces me to probe my own depths and I come out with a better understanding of not only reality, but my own self. The older I get, the more Stoicism makes sense, outside of the deism stuff.

Don't get me wrong... I totally agree with you here; I am intrigued by the journey and the understanding it gives way to, and I'm proud of many of my private mental achievements... things that only come with age and experience... by necessity and in everyone, I'd guess. The process of maturation really, and evolving... our own private wisdom that just comes through age and exposure to life/shit. I'm stoic too and face most of my shit alone, but I continue to surprise myself in how courageous and strong I've become internally if not externally. It's just such a shame that everyone develops their own personal wisdom like this, tailored to their own unique situation/predicament in life, but there's no way to share it in experiential terms... words cannot do it justice. I've been thinking a lot about art lately, trying to find a way of expressing these feelings, and getting them out of myself. But it eludes me and I'm no artist. The mental landscape and it's dynamics are too complicated so they feel like they're confined forever to my mind, but I would give anything to get just a bit of it out there... for my own aid and as a legacy. Because that's the worst part of it... billions of lives throughout history, all with a lifetime's worth of unique wisdom, all lost, as if it never happened, in death, unless it is somehow expressed.