It does in the traditional belief systems of those cultures that have been recently dominated by the middle eastern, old testament religions. Our culture actually believes very deeply in re-incarnation underneath the superficial imposition of christianity.
Reincarnation takes off the burden of immediate responsibility, because there will be another chance in next lives. That pacifies the masses and makes the poor accept their fate, which affirms the current state of affairs. That aside, it can be true, but that’s a personal decision.
How strange. Is this a cultural or a gender difference of some kind? For myself and my friends (including mostly women but some men, all northern hemisphere white culture) re-incarnation makes us more answerable because the chance of coming back into worse circumstances than experienced in this lifetime, is all too real. On the other hand, even minor "good deeds" and minor spiritual gains made in this lifetime will result in some level of good karma in the next. (simplistic but that is the general cultural view of reincarnation and karma, which is what we are talking about) so we can improve incrementally and still feel good about ourselves. By contrast, the christian heaven or hell, if taken literally, makes this life on earth a living hell because it is impossible to live up to the dictates of the sexually foolish and emotionally immature old men who imagine they have the right to tell us all how to behave.)
The AMORC Rosicrucians teach that we should build a life in this lifetime that we would actually want to re-incarnate back into, next time. Which places a huge responsibility on ourselves not to subside into dictatorship or some other awful system because that is where we will find ourselves next time. That means the poverty I have fallen into this time, will follow me into my next lifetime, so I seriously need to do something to mitigate that.
How can there be goals without (bad) feelings? Logic and intelligence only come into play as tools to solve the problem of unrelieved bad feelings, don't they? When you were doing your experiment as a 19-year-old, you were still motivated to act by dissatisfactions of some sort (hunger, fatigue, fear, discomfort, ...), weren't you? To what were you applying logic otherwise?
This is EXACTLY how I see it happening. Those who are pushing all of this, for some reason, don't see what they are doing to their own world!! I think, as the Hyena said lately, they are thinking that they'll be on Mars living the high life eventually. What makes them think that they'll be part of that "elite" group? When the going gets tough, not only do they turn on one another, they eat them.
The Van Allen belt is still probably uncrossable by human tech that can be shot unto space, but, allegedly, Israeli R&D is now able to produce space suits for the purpose. Sorry, I am not gullible enough. :)
Oh, yes, once they are finished with us (the disempowered) and turned the compliant into cyborg slaves, they WILL turn on each other, because they know they are not to be trusted and only ONE can rule! (They are probably running their independent global simulators in their "super AIs" as in Gibson's Neuromancer right now!) :)
Three levels of social organization are recognized among human hunter-gatherers: the community, the domestic unit, and the band. We describe the key features of these three levels and show how they are intimately connected.Sep 8, 2012
Maybe no. It depends. A Priest King is all 3 top terms. Labor depending greatly on the circumstance was all members of the community. Outsiders again this varies widely. Family clans were first. Blood relationships. I think we project present into the past especially with social arrangements. Cultures exist today and have existed where the stranger is an honored guest and not considered an "outsider." Then there is the work of Georges Dumézil (1898–1986), Proto-Indo-European society had three main groups, corresponding to three distinct functions:[2][3]
Sovereignty, which fell into two distinct and complementary sub-parts:
one formal, juridical and priestly but worldly;
the other powerful, unpredictable and priestly but rooted in the supernatural world.
Military, connected with force, the military and war.
Productivity, herding, farming and crafts; ruled by the other two.
In the Proto-Indo-European mythology, each social group had its own god or family of gods to represent it and the function of the god or gods matched the function of the group. Many such divisions occur in the history of Indo-European societies:
Southern Russia: Bernard Sergent associates the Indo-European language family with certain archaeological cultures in Southern Russia and reconstructs an Indo-European religion based upon the tripartite functions.[4]
Early Germanic society: the supposed division between the king, nobility and regular freemen in early Germanic society.[5]
Norse mythology: Odin (sovereignty), Týr (law and justice), the Vanir (fertility).[6][7][note 1] Odin has been interpreted as a death-god[9] and connected to cremations,[10] and has also been associated with ecstatic practices.[11][10]
Classical Greece: the three divisions of the ideal society as described by Socrates in Plato's The Republic. Bernard Sergent examined the trifunctional hypothesis in Greek epic, lyric and dramatic poetry.[12]
India: the three Hindu castes, the Brahmins or priests; the Kshatriya, the warriors and military; and the Vaishya, the agriculturalists, cattle rearers and traders. The Shudra, a fourth Indian caste, is a peasant or serf. Researchers believe that Indo-European-speakers entered India in the Late Bronze Age, mixed with local Indus Valley civilisation populations and may have established a caste system, with themselves primarily in higher castes.[13]
Supporters of the hypothesis include scholars such as Émile Benveniste, Bernard Sergent and Iaroslav Lebedynsky, the last of whom concludes that "the basic idea seems proven in a convincing way".[14]
The hypothesis was embraced outside the field of Indo-European studies by some mythographers, anthropologists and historians such as Mircea Eliade, Claude Lévi-Strauss, Marshall Sahlins, Rodney Needham, Jean-Pierre Vernant and Georges Duby.[15]
On the other hand, Allen concludes that the tripartite division may be an artefact and a selection effect, rather than an organising principle that was used in the societies themselves.[16] Benjamin W. Fortson reports a sense that Dumézil blurred the lines between the three functions and the examples that he gave often had contradictory characteristics,[17] which had caused his detractors to reject his categories as nonexistent.[18] John Brough surmises that societal divisions are common outside Indo-European societies as well and so the hypothesis has only limited utility in illuminating prehistoric Indo-European society.[19] Cristiano Grottanelli states that while Dumézilian trifunctionalism may be seen in modern and medieval contexts, its projection onto earlier cultures is mistaken.[20] Belier is strongly critical.[21]
The hypothesis has been criticised by the historians Carlo Ginzburg, Arnaldo Momigliano[22] and Bruce Lincoln[23] as being based on Dumézil's sympathies with the political right. Guy Stroumsa sees those criticisms as unfounded.[24]
re 'When I was 19, I wanted to experience what it’s like to live without feelings and self-reflection, limiting myself to sensory input and logic.'
That was a serious thought experiment, a young mans resolve applied. The result is almost predictable, and probably much reproducable. I do wonder what prompted you to try living emotionless (like Spock?)...now, I think Muckerberg is closet to achieving it, (that meme! where he is a Vulcan!). I can see an allure to it, and parts of me are coldly logical as well, aka reptilian. It's good to know that your experiment beautifully and humanely failed....a spin on John Henry, as well, the old way (romantics et al), the new way (circuitboard et al). For me the question is where does the emotion go? when it is denied or when it is seen as a weakness? Where do the logic aliens put it?-it does, like your experiment, seem to eventually overwhelm and spill out regardless of our desired fences to contain it. Denial is not wrt emotions. (Check). Seems partnparcel of being a full human, that ole emotion. Just the facts, Maam. Cold hard facts.
re the self reflection you disavowed, what did that mean to you? To not self reflect.
Not saying sorry? Not seeing your actions as good or bad, just 'was or wasnt', did or didn't....
A particular character you were emulating in that? A crazy aunt or uncle who you didnt want to become like? but I regress....Being able to gauge your own state relative to some other marker, while not becoming a spreadsheet, essentially. A resume. A winner at any cost. An impossible balance that we must try to balance. Or it will self balance without your...tacit approval, is indeed my experience...best from oregon
You are asking an intriguing question. No matter how far the investigation goes, being alive and human is a miracle that no analysis could grasp in full. Growing up mostly in the streets (libraries included :) ), by the age of 10, I developed full independence and responsibility for my thoughts and actions.
After learning about other people's lives over the years, I consider my story quite average, although I may have achieved more than most, which amounts to next to nothing in the end. I may have been a bit different from most people around me because of an unusual amount of self-reflection, my dedication to learning, and my devotion to searching for the truth instead of trying to be right.
During those six months, I must have tried a positivist approach probably because there was an inexplicable break between the cruelty I had seen growing up in a poor, crime-ridden neighborhood among all the "Jesus loves you!" "Give me your wallet!" and "I don't care!" people, who have no respect for you, and sort of pretend to show you some respect only if you pretend to be one of them. Also, when you are roughed up every day for years, physically and/or verbally, you become a bit detached from your emotions and you might have a hard time respecting people or even life, even if you know that the attitude is wrong. Still, somehow I knew that beauty stems from the total spectrum of the human experience that encompasses encounters with beauty and ugliness and with good and evil, and the experience doesn't come without sacrifice, but how else can one make responsible decisions in life, unless the judgments come from experience? Also, when most of your attention goes towards preparing for danger and protecting and looking after your loved ones, you just don't have many resources left to look for the meaning of life, so creating a "lab" environment can assist.
The good news is that no matter how much it hurts, not lying to one's self, maintaining integrity and intellectual honesty eventually works out, at least to an extent which a life lived in lies could never bring to fruition.
While I did meet with a handful of people I admired (by now, I have become quite good at finding something admirable in nearly anyone), I never even dreamed about emulating them; it was a task hard enough to let myself happen and to strive to make progress in a way that wouldn't hurt others a whole lot or might be even helpful for some.
thank you for that.....i am guessing New York? Or the middle east? (what we used to call the mid america states)?..I am from the 'beautiful scenic stretch' north of Detroit, specifically 14 mile road and Gratiot area. But in all other aspects my life has been the opposite of yours. I was fed, sheltered, educated, summer camped, music lessoned and raised almost in community with my aunts family across the street. So, as you said, 'but how else can one make responsible decisions in life, unless the judgments come from experience?', for me I have been sort of late to the party for all of lifes typical junctures, perhaps I am on cicada time or such. Their journey/search for truth? cycle? is quite a long one for any creature, and they are but a 'bug'. I do wonder what they would say. Best-
The greatest victories of man in the realms of science, as in that of the technical mastery over nature, have become the principal cause of man’s dehumanization. Man is no longer master of the machines which he has invented. Our contemporary mechanized civilization is fatal to man’s inner life, for it destroys his integrity, disfigures his emotional life, makes him the instrument of inhuman processes, and takes away from him all possibility of contemplation by a rapid increase in the tempo of life.[18] https://simoneweilcenter.org/publications/2021/11/28/christianitys-abandonment-of-the-future-nicholas-berdyaev-on-philosophy-prophecy-and-eschatology
We all have our own paths and one thing I learned early in life: everybody has their own problems, so there is no point in envying anyone. The more one receives, the more they are responsible for.
The best analogy for my childhood would be a working-class neighborhood in Cleveland, OH; city boy most of my life and it is finally nice to live in rural Kentucky. It almost feels like being on a constant vacation! Except for having to mow the lawn, of course! :)
I was born in Dayton, moved to suburb of Hershey PA then California dreaming since 1966. And I am pleased with the choice if only because NYC was not liveable and Europa impossible-though briefly the fantasy of France seemed feasible. I also gave Prague and Munich and Vienna an eye but Divine reason held me here and so the worst of the insanity passed me by.
I wonder Ray if you had a relative who was a very fine writer by the name of Ödön von Horváth (1901–1938) who captured in his novels and plays the degradation of language and the bitterness of lower-middle-class life.
In your caste pyramid graphic, what is the meaning of the words "twice born groups"?
In Indian beleif, these are the ones who are re-incarnated.
https://www.newworldencyclopedia.org/entry/Twice-born
It bears no significance for other cultures, where the same five castes can also be observed.
It does in the traditional belief systems of those cultures that have been recently dominated by the middle eastern, old testament religions. Our culture actually believes very deeply in re-incarnation underneath the superficial imposition of christianity.
Reincarnation takes off the burden of immediate responsibility, because there will be another chance in next lives. That pacifies the masses and makes the poor accept their fate, which affirms the current state of affairs. That aside, it can be true, but that’s a personal decision.
How strange. Is this a cultural or a gender difference of some kind? For myself and my friends (including mostly women but some men, all northern hemisphere white culture) re-incarnation makes us more answerable because the chance of coming back into worse circumstances than experienced in this lifetime, is all too real. On the other hand, even minor "good deeds" and minor spiritual gains made in this lifetime will result in some level of good karma in the next. (simplistic but that is the general cultural view of reincarnation and karma, which is what we are talking about) so we can improve incrementally and still feel good about ourselves. By contrast, the christian heaven or hell, if taken literally, makes this life on earth a living hell because it is impossible to live up to the dictates of the sexually foolish and emotionally immature old men who imagine they have the right to tell us all how to behave.)
The AMORC Rosicrucians teach that we should build a life in this lifetime that we would actually want to re-incarnate back into, next time. Which places a huge responsibility on ourselves not to subside into dictatorship or some other awful system because that is where we will find ourselves next time. That means the poverty I have fallen into this time, will follow me into my next lifetime, so I seriously need to do something to mitigate that.
Thank you for your contribution. It inspired me to write the following:
https://rayhorvaththesource.substack.com/p/my-problem-with-reincarnation-organized
How can there be goals without (bad) feelings? Logic and intelligence only come into play as tools to solve the problem of unrelieved bad feelings, don't they? When you were doing your experiment as a 19-year-old, you were still motivated to act by dissatisfactions of some sort (hunger, fatigue, fear, discomfort, ...), weren't you? To what were you applying logic otherwise?
"As long as they control the global money supply, it’s game over for humanity." https://courageouslion380.substack.com/p/there-is-a-reason-they-dont-listen
This is EXACTLY how I see it happening. Those who are pushing all of this, for some reason, don't see what they are doing to their own world!! I think, as the Hyena said lately, they are thinking that they'll be on Mars living the high life eventually. What makes them think that they'll be part of that "elite" group? When the going gets tough, not only do they turn on one another, they eat them.
The Van Allen belt is still probably uncrossable by human tech that can be shot unto space, but, allegedly, Israeli R&D is now able to produce space suits for the purpose. Sorry, I am not gullible enough. :)
Oh, yes, once they are finished with us (the disempowered) and turned the compliant into cyborg slaves, they WILL turn on each other, because they know they are not to be trusted and only ONE can rule! (They are probably running their independent global simulators in their "super AIs" as in Gibson's Neuromancer right now!) :)
Three levels of social organization are recognized among human hunter-gatherers: the community, the domestic unit, and the band. We describe the key features of these three levels and show how they are intimately connected.Sep 8, 2012
https://link.springer.com › article
Antiquity and Social Functions of Multilevel Social Organization Among Human ...
Let’s not confuse the distribution of labor with social classes.
In a tribal community, the same five levels of privileges exist, as anywhere else. Only the nomenclatures vary:
1. Chief(s)
2. Shamans/medicine men
3. Warriors/hunters
4. Laborers
5. Outsiders, who don’t fit.
Maybe no. It depends. A Priest King is all 3 top terms. Labor depending greatly on the circumstance was all members of the community. Outsiders again this varies widely. Family clans were first. Blood relationships. I think we project present into the past especially with social arrangements. Cultures exist today and have existed where the stranger is an honored guest and not considered an "outsider." Then there is the work of Georges Dumézil (1898–1986), Proto-Indo-European society had three main groups, corresponding to three distinct functions:[2][3]
Sovereignty, which fell into two distinct and complementary sub-parts:
one formal, juridical and priestly but worldly;
the other powerful, unpredictable and priestly but rooted in the supernatural world.
Military, connected with force, the military and war.
Productivity, herding, farming and crafts; ruled by the other two.
In the Proto-Indo-European mythology, each social group had its own god or family of gods to represent it and the function of the god or gods matched the function of the group. Many such divisions occur in the history of Indo-European societies:
Southern Russia: Bernard Sergent associates the Indo-European language family with certain archaeological cultures in Southern Russia and reconstructs an Indo-European religion based upon the tripartite functions.[4]
Early Germanic society: the supposed division between the king, nobility and regular freemen in early Germanic society.[5]
Norse mythology: Odin (sovereignty), Týr (law and justice), the Vanir (fertility).[6][7][note 1] Odin has been interpreted as a death-god[9] and connected to cremations,[10] and has also been associated with ecstatic practices.[11][10]
Classical Greece: the three divisions of the ideal society as described by Socrates in Plato's The Republic. Bernard Sergent examined the trifunctional hypothesis in Greek epic, lyric and dramatic poetry.[12]
India: the three Hindu castes, the Brahmins or priests; the Kshatriya, the warriors and military; and the Vaishya, the agriculturalists, cattle rearers and traders. The Shudra, a fourth Indian caste, is a peasant or serf. Researchers believe that Indo-European-speakers entered India in the Late Bronze Age, mixed with local Indus Valley civilisation populations and may have established a caste system, with themselves primarily in higher castes.[13]
Supporters of the hypothesis include scholars such as Émile Benveniste, Bernard Sergent and Iaroslav Lebedynsky, the last of whom concludes that "the basic idea seems proven in a convincing way".[14]
The hypothesis was embraced outside the field of Indo-European studies by some mythographers, anthropologists and historians such as Mircea Eliade, Claude Lévi-Strauss, Marshall Sahlins, Rodney Needham, Jean-Pierre Vernant and Georges Duby.[15]
On the other hand, Allen concludes that the tripartite division may be an artefact and a selection effect, rather than an organising principle that was used in the societies themselves.[16] Benjamin W. Fortson reports a sense that Dumézil blurred the lines between the three functions and the examples that he gave often had contradictory characteristics,[17] which had caused his detractors to reject his categories as nonexistent.[18] John Brough surmises that societal divisions are common outside Indo-European societies as well and so the hypothesis has only limited utility in illuminating prehistoric Indo-European society.[19] Cristiano Grottanelli states that while Dumézilian trifunctionalism may be seen in modern and medieval contexts, its projection onto earlier cultures is mistaken.[20] Belier is strongly critical.[21]
The hypothesis has been criticised by the historians Carlo Ginzburg, Arnaldo Momigliano[22] and Bruce Lincoln[23] as being based on Dumézil's sympathies with the political right. Guy Stroumsa sees those criticisms as unfounded.[24]
fascinating... i appreciate the concise description of the terms... definitions must be established to have a coherent conversation...
I hope, my response to the last comment helps. Sorry, I infer too much, as usual…
The useless eater part is more towards those who use money to buy food. Which is nearly everyone now.
The technocrats want to keep only the privileged and the servants. Everyone else is redundant.
I had written this early today and bec it seems relevant, re logic vs creativity and feelings....
visiting st catherines
this is after you were at college
The mysterious 8 legged 2 headed calf
appeared to me today in a photograph
but then i realized it was just 2 calves
one behind the other and I had to laugh.
and think of my grandpa. (I only knew
my fathers father, my mothers had passed
before or just after I was born).
His name was Lawrence Sauriol. He had a sense
of humor, a creativity, based on my handful
of times with him. When we would visit
from Detroit, about twice a year or so,
we would sit around and watch tv, or he would play
solitaire endlessly, usually, but one
morning he was reading newspaper ads.
One, for selling socks or underwear, featured
a picture of a persons leg, showing their knee.
If you looked at the knee just right, you
could see a little face in the knee, I could too,
once he pointed it out to me. I was suprised,
adults did not often think like that; or so I
had thought at that point. Adulthood seemed a
logic trip to me as a kid. Less so now, daily.
I think of that alot, of seeing little faces in
knots of wood and in pancakes, (who doesn't?)
and in other suprising places. It makes life
more meaningful and fun, if nothing else.
Once when i was visiting my grandpa on
my fathers side on the canadian side of the
niagra falls called st catherines
where the men would throw coins from the ships
into my eager cousins hands ,
he would show you his coin collection-
there once when i was visiting my grandpa and gramma
skinny gramma because she was much removed
parts inside from surgeries but she lived on
through them for longer than anyone thought she could
my grandpa took me outside to play catch
he asked me if i wanted to and i was sure to say yes
so we went with mitts and a ball to the back yard
which was very deep and long and had a green canoe
on blocks it was metal and it was grandpas canoe
and I only ever saw it on blocks but it looked like
it had seen good use but was without dents
and the grass was green
and the potats were green in the garden rows behind him
and the rubarb leaves made a backdrop
and we played catch. grandpa would do a wind
up like a pitcher for every throw, he played
catch with me. he played catch with me. For all of 12 minutes
but it was enough to make me so happy.
i cried when we drove away from st catherines
that time. he was a fun guy, my grandpa, he
made a special effort for me, i see now.
re 'When I was 19, I wanted to experience what it’s like to live without feelings and self-reflection, limiting myself to sensory input and logic.'
That was a serious thought experiment, a young mans resolve applied. The result is almost predictable, and probably much reproducable. I do wonder what prompted you to try living emotionless (like Spock?)...now, I think Muckerberg is closet to achieving it, (that meme! where he is a Vulcan!). I can see an allure to it, and parts of me are coldly logical as well, aka reptilian. It's good to know that your experiment beautifully and humanely failed....a spin on John Henry, as well, the old way (romantics et al), the new way (circuitboard et al). For me the question is where does the emotion go? when it is denied or when it is seen as a weakness? Where do the logic aliens put it?-it does, like your experiment, seem to eventually overwhelm and spill out regardless of our desired fences to contain it. Denial is not wrt emotions. (Check). Seems partnparcel of being a full human, that ole emotion. Just the facts, Maam. Cold hard facts.
re the self reflection you disavowed, what did that mean to you? To not self reflect.
Not saying sorry? Not seeing your actions as good or bad, just 'was or wasnt', did or didn't....
A particular character you were emulating in that? A crazy aunt or uncle who you didnt want to become like? but I regress....Being able to gauge your own state relative to some other marker, while not becoming a spreadsheet, essentially. A resume. A winner at any cost. An impossible balance that we must try to balance. Or it will self balance without your...tacit approval, is indeed my experience...best from oregon
Apparently I have/had a very expressive face so as a teen-ager I decided to turn off my face.
Probably still doing so. Now when I am maskless among maskees I am aware that I am giving away a lot more state of mind clues.
Anyway, some of the nose-coned will now feel exposed should they remove them.
You are asking an intriguing question. No matter how far the investigation goes, being alive and human is a miracle that no analysis could grasp in full. Growing up mostly in the streets (libraries included :) ), by the age of 10, I developed full independence and responsibility for my thoughts and actions.
After learning about other people's lives over the years, I consider my story quite average, although I may have achieved more than most, which amounts to next to nothing in the end. I may have been a bit different from most people around me because of an unusual amount of self-reflection, my dedication to learning, and my devotion to searching for the truth instead of trying to be right.
During those six months, I must have tried a positivist approach probably because there was an inexplicable break between the cruelty I had seen growing up in a poor, crime-ridden neighborhood among all the "Jesus loves you!" "Give me your wallet!" and "I don't care!" people, who have no respect for you, and sort of pretend to show you some respect only if you pretend to be one of them. Also, when you are roughed up every day for years, physically and/or verbally, you become a bit detached from your emotions and you might have a hard time respecting people or even life, even if you know that the attitude is wrong. Still, somehow I knew that beauty stems from the total spectrum of the human experience that encompasses encounters with beauty and ugliness and with good and evil, and the experience doesn't come without sacrifice, but how else can one make responsible decisions in life, unless the judgments come from experience? Also, when most of your attention goes towards preparing for danger and protecting and looking after your loved ones, you just don't have many resources left to look for the meaning of life, so creating a "lab" environment can assist.
The good news is that no matter how much it hurts, not lying to one's self, maintaining integrity and intellectual honesty eventually works out, at least to an extent which a life lived in lies could never bring to fruition.
While I did meet with a handful of people I admired (by now, I have become quite good at finding something admirable in nearly anyone), I never even dreamed about emulating them; it was a task hard enough to let myself happen and to strive to make progress in a way that wouldn't hurt others a whole lot or might be even helpful for some.
Searching for the truth is a solitary pastime. :)
thank you for that.....i am guessing New York? Or the middle east? (what we used to call the mid america states)?..I am from the 'beautiful scenic stretch' north of Detroit, specifically 14 mile road and Gratiot area. But in all other aspects my life has been the opposite of yours. I was fed, sheltered, educated, summer camped, music lessoned and raised almost in community with my aunts family across the street. So, as you said, 'but how else can one make responsible decisions in life, unless the judgments come from experience?', for me I have been sort of late to the party for all of lifes typical junctures, perhaps I am on cicada time or such. Their journey/search for truth? cycle? is quite a long one for any creature, and they are but a 'bug'. I do wonder what they would say. Best-
The greatest victories of man in the realms of science, as in that of the technical mastery over nature, have become the principal cause of man’s dehumanization. Man is no longer master of the machines which he has invented. Our contemporary mechanized civilization is fatal to man’s inner life, for it destroys his integrity, disfigures his emotional life, makes him the instrument of inhuman processes, and takes away from him all possibility of contemplation by a rapid increase in the tempo of life.[18] https://simoneweilcenter.org/publications/2021/11/28/christianitys-abandonment-of-the-future-nicholas-berdyaev-on-philosophy-prophecy-and-eschatology
This Covid plandemic has given both more time and a sense of urgency for contemplation.
We're all philosophers, psychologists and scientists now.
That's the good news.
Amish? except for the problems of late of course...but mostly....?
We all have our own paths and one thing I learned early in life: everybody has their own problems, so there is no point in envying anyone. The more one receives, the more they are responsible for.
The best analogy for my childhood would be a working-class neighborhood in Cleveland, OH; city boy most of my life and it is finally nice to live in rural Kentucky. It almost feels like being on a constant vacation! Except for having to mow the lawn, of course! :)
I was born in Dayton, moved to suburb of Hershey PA then California dreaming since 1966. And I am pleased with the choice if only because NYC was not liveable and Europa impossible-though briefly the fantasy of France seemed feasible. I also gave Prague and Munich and Vienna an eye but Divine reason held me here and so the worst of the insanity passed me by.
We are all homebound. :)
Bound for home, that is.
I wonder Ray if you had a relative who was a very fine writer by the name of Ödön von Horváth (1901–1938) who captured in his novels and plays the degradation of language and the bitterness of lower-middle-class life.
Pet rabbits eat grass and can be very affectionate and they put on shows of leaping and U turns.
If you want to get close to nature and have a laugh.
My wife just broke the news that she wants to keep rabbits.
Sadly, for eating only... :(
Our border collie, however, always made me laugh when he "played soccer"!