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Author
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Topic: For what do you live?
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rural - Francesca
rabble-rouser
Babbler # 14858
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posted 13 January 2008 06:00 AM
I’m thankful it’s a weekend. Recent events, she said tongue firmly planted in her cheek, have caused me to take stock of life. As I struggled with my challenges, a friend asked me the strangest question; for what do you live?
I leaned into my keyboard to respond but the answer wasn’t at the surface of my thoughts. So I emailed him back and told him I’d get back to him. Muttering to myself I took up household chores, activities that would allow my mind to wander as it chewed on the question.
My friend demanded no pat answers. “You can’t say your kids, I already know that.” Well yes, I would live and die for my children, as most parents would. But they can’t be why I live, because that would mean, when they grew up, when they moved away, I would no longer have anything to live for, and that’s just dumb. I know I have my own life.
I asked others, for what do you live? They looked at me funny and told me to take some time off work.
I even tried to take the contrary view and look at what I don’t live for. That list was somewhat easy to pull together. I just opened my issues file and looked at all the rantings and soapbox lectures I had made. But that’s the easy list. No one lives for child abuse, poverty, war or inequality. But it still didn’t answer the primary question.
Back in the winter another friend, asked me what I wanted to do when I grew up. What was my ultimate job? “I want to be the Canadian Ambassador to a small tropical country” I declared. While true, we still had a good chuckle over that one. Knowing my luck if I ever entered the diplomatic service I’d end up in northern Russia teaching the reindeer to see their shadows.
In all seriousness, my pat answer to such inquires is generally ‘to make a difference’. Sometimes when I’m faced with challenges and forks in the road I consider my obituary. (Why not, I’ve been on page one and four enough, why not page two.) What did I want said about me after I’ve left the planet? If I want it to say I was fair and honest, then I can’t respond to my challenges with anger and malice. If I want it to say I provided a role model and made people think, then I can’t respond with bitterness and hate.
What I really want it to say is that I was horribly rich and died laughing: the former not likely, the later, definitely.
So I’m still left pondering, for what do I live?
I live for the smell of newborn babies, the sunrise over Georgian Bay, the sparkle in my daughters eye, the laughter of my son. I live for the wind in the trees, the rain on my face and the feel of sand between my toes. And friends who make me think.
I live for the experience for the sensation of living itself. To know joy, we need to know what sorrow is. To feel compassion we need to understand isolation. To recognize friendship we must experience malice.
So around this season’s table of feasts, don’t ask everyone what they are planning for the New Year, ask them, for what do you live?
From: the backyard | Registered: Dec 2007
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Tommy_Paine
rabble-rouser
Babbler # 214
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posted 13 January 2008 05:00 PM
We are 13 days into 2008, and I have not had pizza yet. As much as I love pizza, I have decided I can do without it all of a sudden. Of course, post Christmas finances have something to do with it, but I dunno, I kind of feel better for not having it.We'll see how long it lasts. I think if I don't have one before the end of the month, February will be my breakdown month. Let's see, what do I live for? Orgasms, obviously, but I think we are looking for something a little more spiritual. I've never been good at a question like that. I just sort of "do stuff", from day to day. And I suspect most people are doing stuff they don't really like, but don't know how to transition to something they do like, and get annoyed when others ask a question like this. I tend to forget, what with work and the day to day routine, but every now and then, I get epiphany like reminders. The best happens when I've been out and about with my daughters, or my grand nephews in the woods. Or mentoring the ones that are transitioning into early adulthood. Part of it is doing your best to provide guidance... but mostly it's when you see something for the first time again through their eyes. I can say I live for those moments.
From: The Alley, Behind Montgomery's Tavern | Registered: Apr 2001
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The Canadian Centrist
rabble-rouser
Babbler # 14873
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posted 15 January 2008 04:34 AM
quote:
Originally posted by Caissa:
peace, quiet and solitude.
Ok I know embarrased, my list sound materialist...  Truthfully i love reaching a state of mental relaxation with all stress eliminated. Not so much for the end in itself but this state is a means to an end - in such a state i really can do so much thinking so clearly and analyze life. Tough for me to communicate this so I'll give example; i lived in Brasil last year and was living on a hammock (by this i mean blanket like bed that hangs between trees, right word I have?) for a month and eating mostly nothing but fresh fruit smoking lots of ganja. I did not anything all day but walk through jungles , pictures of wildlife, speak to locals; no tourists was in this island i was at no french or english (my languages) no pressures, violence, discrimination. I would stare off into the distance for hours you would assume i was bored but not i was so happy... My words do not this justice - let me just say it was amazing. By the way, qualquer um aqui fala o português? edited: yes it is the same name i had: Here me:
 [ 15 January 2008: Message edited by: The Canadian Centrist ] [ 15 January 2008: Message edited by: The Canadian Centrist ]
From: The NDP: Parliament's Whitest Party | Registered: Jan 2008
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rural - Francesca
rabble-rouser
Babbler # 14858
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posted 15 January 2008 05:10 AM
quote:
Originally posted by The Canadian Centrist:
Ok I know embarrased, my list sound materialist...
No don't do that!! Because in any given moment, our primary need can be materialistic and selfish. Last night after starting work at 8 am I arrived home at 10:15 pm, back to back to back meetings, including a dinner meeting. For what did I live at 10:15 pm? A hot cup of tea and to check in with my kids, 5 cats and lizard. If anyone had called with a crisis or a need beyond the four walls of my home, they would have been told. And for that cuppa tea, I would have committed crimes
From: the backyard | Registered: Dec 2007
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B.L. Zeebub LLD
rabble-rouser
Babbler # 6914
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posted 19 January 2008 03:03 AM
I live for them. But they all call themselves "I" so it's tough to tell who's speaking at any given moment. They all have different things they live for. I is far down the list. quote:
Imagine then a fleet or a ship in which there is a captain who is taller and stronger than any of the crew, but he is a little deaf and has a similar infirmity in sight, and his knowledge of navigation is not much better. The sailors are quarrelling with one another about the steering — every one is of opinion that he has a right to steer, though he has never learned the art of navigation and cannot tell who taught him or when he learned, and will further assert that it cannot be taught, and they are ready to cut in pieces any one who says the contrary. They throng about the captain, begging and praying him to commit the helm to them; and if at any time they do not prevail, but others are preferred to them, they kill the others or throw them overboard, and having first chained up the noble captain's senses with drink or some narcotic drug, they mutiny and take possession of the ship and make free with the stores; thus, eating and drinking, they proceed on their voyage in such a manner as might be expected of them. Him who is their partisan and cleverly aids them in their plot for getting the ship out of the captain's hands into their own whether by force or persuasion, they compliment with the name of sailor, pilot, able seaman, and abuse the other sort of man, whom they call a good-for-nothing; but that the true pilot must pay attention to the year and seasons and sky and stars and winds, and whatever else belongs to his art, if he intends to be really qualified for the command of a ship, and that he must and will be the steerer, whether other people like or not — the possibility of this union of authority with the steerer's art has never seriously entered into their thoughts or been made part of their calling. Now in vessels which are in a state of mutiny and by sailors who are mutineers, how will the true pilot be regarded? Will he not be called by them a prater, a star-gazer, a good-for-nothing?
Plato, The Republic, Book VI Something like that... [ 20 January 2008: Message edited by: B.L. Zeebub LLD ]
From: A Devil of an Advocate | Registered: Sep 2004
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