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My husband considers himself to be in the Awareness step of the three A's on our current generational squeeze between the Texas redneck pride of our elders and the 21st century pride of our middle aged youngsters. I believe I have spent enough time in the Acceptance phase that I am getting impatient waiting for my emotionally retarded company man to catch up. God grant me patience. NOW!!!!
Among the more U.S. traditional solutions under discussion is to watch out for number one and leave the rest to fend for themselves. Just buy our retirement property in one of the depressed economies all the boom immigrants flooding Texas are abandoning. If we just let Daddy Gas Bucks finish his journey from La-de-dah Lane to a state nursing home and leave our sons to "Just Grow Up," we can just happily pass our golden years tending our bees in a calmer environment. Our Texas is long gone. We don't much like the Boom stress that is still growing here. Family is all that is holding us here and... Yaddah to the blah and blah to the yaddah...
Yup, you guessed it. Today's "Courage to Change" reading inserted another point of view to the mix.
In the face of seemingly impossible problems, it is easy to believe that our most negative thoughts reflect the truth. They plead the worst case scenario in a very convincing way, until it almost seems frivolous to consider a positive outcome. Yet the loudest voice is not necessarily the truest.
No matter how insistent a feeling may be, it is just a feeling, not a prophecy. We don't get to know today what will happen tomorrow. Counting on any particular outcome can lead to disappointment, but sometimes it helps to remember that a positive outcome is just as likely as a negative one.
"This time, like all times, is a very good one, if we but know what to do with it." ~Ralph Waldo Emerson
Still chewing. I have no lower teeth. I needs lots of chew time.
Among the more U.S. traditional solutions under discussion is to watch out for number one and leave the rest to fend for themselves. Just buy our retirement property in one of the depressed economies all the boom immigrants flooding Texas are abandoning. If we just let Daddy Gas Bucks finish his journey from La-de-dah Lane to a state nursing home and leave our sons to "Just Grow Up," we can just happily pass our golden years tending our bees in a calmer environment. Our Texas is long gone. We don't much like the Boom stress that is still growing here. Family is all that is holding us here and... Yaddah to the blah and blah to the yaddah...
Yup, you guessed it. Today's "Courage to Change" reading inserted another point of view to the mix.
In the face of seemingly impossible problems, it is easy to believe that our most negative thoughts reflect the truth. They plead the worst case scenario in a very convincing way, until it almost seems frivolous to consider a positive outcome. Yet the loudest voice is not necessarily the truest.
No matter how insistent a feeling may be, it is just a feeling, not a prophecy. We don't get to know today what will happen tomorrow. Counting on any particular outcome can lead to disappointment, but sometimes it helps to remember that a positive outcome is just as likely as a negative one.
"This time, like all times, is a very good one, if we but know what to do with it." ~Ralph Waldo Emerson
Still chewing. I have no lower teeth. I needs lots of chew time.
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I don't really know how to label this but I having a rough week and I can't say it's one thing.... I have a lot on my plate which is nothing new and I try to cope in many positive ways and do but I still have my moments.My kids more so my daughters talk to me about everything which I know it's cause of comfort and we are close.... however I really struggle with the venting about their dad which...
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I did the dumbest thing today. I charged my earbuds, unplugged the block and put the block in my little bag instead of the earbuds. I wasn't happy about that when I got to the gym. What a dummy!
I don't know if you're joking about the teeth thing, and if you're not, I suspect you may have some strong stand against dentistry, but I just want to say, you do deserve a full complement of teeth and it does make chewing, as well as digestion, a lot easier.
That quote reminds me of a scene/quote from the Lord of the Rings movies.... The protagonist is wishing that this difficult task had never fallen to him, and his mentor replies:
"So do all who live to see such times. But that is not for them to decide. All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given to us. "
No idea if that helps or hurts or what, but it's what came to my mind....
I am not a fan of what is sometimes called "rugged individualism." It scarred me too deeply. I'm more a join-hands-and-hug-the-world type. (If you hadn't guessed, LOL.)
Good thoughts. Thanks for sharing, Wise Bee-Wolf-Woman.
The world is not ending. It's changing but is that really so bad? There's an R.E.M. song 'the end of the world' it says all this stuff but the chorus is "it's the end of the world as we know it and feel fine". I can relate to that.
This youtuber made a video with pictures inserted for the song:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AzqiPvGrkTo
Leo, I stopped watching the news in the mid 80's. I don't bury my head in the sand. I do my own news investigations. The talking heads are, indeed, masters of negativity. Love that scene from Lord of the Rings. Thanks for the reminder. It does, indeed, help.
Thanks for the video, Risen. Great song.
I need dental work
Must go to the county...and wait...
I believe my solitary ways are based in whatevers that earned me the "Retarded" label until I experienced until preadolescence. "Rugged Individualism" strikes me as something else altogether.
Wish I knew what is niggling at me this...
Thanks for this thread. Again.
I prefer John Donne myself: No man is an island unto himself. Even cats, who are notoriously alleged to be un-social, have social relationships. (Hey, got back on topic!)
For me, the idea of "Rugged INdividualism" seems too much like a way to be a selfish and/or pompous twit. "You're on your own, sucker, after all, I did it all okay on *my* own..." It's such a denial of the web of interactions that help define us that it scares me. Extreme Isolation is used as a torture method for a reason, y'know?
Anyway, my thoughts.
Hm-m-m-m... Chew chew... Carefully, spitting out the rocks as I chew...
Shifting away from the New Englanders on the topic of rugged individualism, the topic brings to mind Eric Fromme's Escape from Freedom. He tried to explain why smart Germans followed Hitler, and he came away with an observation about humanity in general.
Basically, he said that every national anthem in the world praises freedom and we use the word from sunup to sundown as something we want. But then he said our actions contradict our verbage. In fact, he said, most humans spend their lives trying to escape from the loneliness freedom brings.
We give it away, avoid it, and neglect it. He thought people are much more concerned about fitting in and NOT being different than in really being individualistic, which explained to him why Germans fell for Hitler.
I don't know if I agree, but it gave me pause when I thought about how many people know about the kind of abuse that leads to PTSD but do nothing to stop it.
The mystique of "the rugged individualist" has a lot of flaws (starting with bumming meals off the Emersons, LOL) but people are very good at ignoring hypocrisy and inconsistency and so on.... even within themselves. Maybe *especially* within themselves.
All I know is? Time alone? Breeds both peace and panic for me.
BTW, yep, Emerson is *dense*. Of course, try reading anything from that period Whoa. I don't mind, but I'm a book nut. I'll read books on molecular biology, which rather puts Emerson's Victorian-era rhetoric into perspective!