What's new

What are the minimal accomplishments needed to satisfy you?

I don't think it's hippy. I think it's human nature. We have domesticated to one level or another lots of animals. Dogs, cats, pigs, birds, horses...

I have two dogs and they are part of the family. They sleep in my room, play with the kids, eat Saturday morning breakfast with us, go on walks...house would feel less without them.

I'm pretty sure these animals have domesticated me.

That's partly a joke, but also true. It's also a chance to say that both species are dramatically altered anytime there's a "domestication."
 
We must remember that we've been on this planet for somewhere around 200,000 years.
For more than 99% of that time we have lived in small villages and interacting with very few outside our clan.

I think our DNA (if you will) has gone completely haywire with our world becoming so "small" just in the past 25 years or so (internet, social media, etc). We haven't 'evolved' our social, intellectual, and emotional selves in stride.
Socially and emotionally retarded, if you will.

I think animals (and kids) are magnetic for us because those beings are simpler, purer, and more reminiscent of what our 'dna' had gotten used to over a period of about 198,000 years.
 
Domestication of animals served a practical purpose. The connection people have with animals stems from the same emotional need we require from one another. It is not animal specific.

I agree. Nothing in here alters my statement. Good post.
 
Get in more bar fights b4 I am to old.
Last night was 3 on 10 than 2 on another 10 when my dumb buddy went back for more. We got are *** kicked that one but at least 6 of em went cold. Think I have 3 broken ribs.
All cause a 60 year old man can still pick up 3 23 year olds that some dumb *** punk 23 year old thot was his property to pick up.
His nose an eye socket was broke an I think I ripped off his ear.
Not bad for a 60 year old.
 
We must remember that we've been on this planet for somewhere around 200,000 years.
For more than 99% of that time we have lived in small villages and interacting with very few outside our clan.

I think our DNA (if you will) has gone completely haywire with our world becoming so "small" just in the past 25 years or so (internet, social media, etc). We haven't 'evolved' our social, intellectual, and emotional selves in stride.
Socially and emotionally retarded, if you will.

I think animals (and kids) are magnetic for us because those beings are simpler, purer, and more reminiscent of what our 'dna' had gotten used to over a period of about 198,000 years.

I'd put it in different terms (I'm sort of allergic to 'purity' arguments, fwiw), but I don't disagree.

For example, I have a cat who is amazingly good at expressing what she's feeling in the present moment. It has only been over a long period of time that I've been able to understand what motivates her beyond the present (the things she's somehow deeper in-tune with than everybody else around here). These are complex social engagements, and I get something non-species-specific from how she pays attention to details and why they're concerning her. This ties back into your point because there is an intense localness to these drives. Humanity, on the other hand, has taken the impulse toward global consciousness so far that it has now become a necessity. For me, it's kind of a wonder to behold her freedom from our world, and the correctness in her demands to see her world participated in by the rest of us.


(This'll sound crazy, but wtf.... She is incredibly conscious of me and my girlfriend's sleeping patterns. There have been several times that my girlfriend (and, to a lesser extent, me) has woken up from a bad dream to find her already on her way over to soothe her. With a very job-like focus, she will proceed to lay on your chest and produce a heavy purr. Distant stare. She'll leave to her own napping place as soon as breath is calmed and sleep is nigh. Before this, I didn't even know she'd taken up the position of nightwatchman; and had no idea how attuned she was to the types of stirs and other motions. This is subtle stuff. I eventually realized that she must have some cat-theory about our dreams, which she somehow presides over. When I was piecing this all together, I realized how often people appear in my dreams in-miniature, and then realized they are approximately cat-sized. Freud [Interpretations of Dreams, his best, IMO] would argue that's because she is visiting me during the most intense and memorable image-producing part of my dreams, and that my body registers that visit by resizing things.)

There's an incredible maturity in animals and kids. I don't think you're saying otherwise, but sometimes that point gets lost in our common-sense ideas about kids and animals. I hope my example demonstrates my appreciation of that.
 
I'd put it in different terms (I'm sort of allergic to 'purity' arguments, fwiw), but I don't disagree.

For example, I have a cat who is amazingly good at expressing what she's feeling in the present moment. It has only been over a long period of time that I've been able to understand what motivates her beyond the present (the things she's somehow deeper in-tune with than everybody else around here). These are complex social engagements, and I get something non-species-specific from how she pays attention to details and why they're concerning her. This ties back into your point because there is an intense localness to these drives. Humanity, on the other hand, has taken the impulse toward global consciousness so far that it has now become a necessity. For me, it's kind of a wonder to behold her freedom from our world, and the correctness in her demands to see her world participated in by the rest of us.


(This'll sound crazy, but wtf.... She is incredibly conscious of me and my girlfriend's sleeping patterns. There have been several times that my girlfriend (and, to a lesser extent, me) has woken up from a bad dream to find her already on her way over to soothe her. With a very job-like focus, she will proceed to lay on your chest and produce a heavy purr. Distant stare. She'll leave to her own napping place as soon as breath is calmed and sleep is nigh. Before this, I didn't even know she'd taken up the position of nightwatchman; and had no idea how attuned she was to the types of stirs and other motions. This is subtle stuff. I eventually realized that she must have some cat-theory about our dreams, which she somehow presides over. When I was piecing this all together, I realized how often people appear in my dreams in miniature, and then realized they are approximately cat-sized. Freud [Interpretations of Dreams, his best, IMO] would argue that's because she is visiting me during the most intense and memorable image-producing part of my dreams, and that my body registers that visit by resizing things.)

There's an incredible maturity in animals and kids. I don't think you're saying otherwise, but sometimes that point gets lost in our common-sense ideas about kids and animals. I hope my example demonstrates my appreciation of that.

Good post. Thanks for the reply.
For the record, I hold terms like "simple" and "pure" in high regard.

People that enjoy the complex blow in the wind. Let me explain.
For those things we are passionate enough about to truly pursue an understanding of that pursuits basic nature, it becomes simple and pure for us. I don't quite understand wanting to be passionate about things we feel are complex/beyond our simple comprehension.

Life, as I see it, is meant to be lived upon a foundation of things we understand and enjoy. Focusing too much attention, too often, on the mysterious leads to anxiety and a lack of inner peace and purpose.

I've had a couple beers for lunch so sorry if that came off as senseless mumbo jumbo.
 
Good post. Thanks for the reply.
For the record, I hold terms like "simple" and "pure" in high regard.

People that enjoy the complex blow in the wind. Let me explain.
For those things we are passionate enough about to truly pursue an understanding of that pursuits basic nature, it becomes simple and pure for us. I don't quite understand wanting to be passionate about things we feel are complex/beyond our simple comprehension.

Life, as I see it, is meant to be lived upon a foundation of things we understand and enjoy. Focusing too much attention, too often, on the mysterious leads to anxiety and a lack of inner peace and purpose.

I've had a couple beers for lunch so sorry if that came off as senseless mumbo jumbo.

I like that.

I try to let truths be paradoxical. I think your 'simplicity' meets my 'complexity' without any contradiction. Your statements seem to point to the less abstract and affect-level side of knowing, whereas mine point to a more maximalist, descriptive rendering. Same picture, though. Or so it seems.
 
I like that.

I try to let truths be paradoxical. I think your 'simplicity' meets my 'complexity' without any contradiction. Your statements seem to point to the less abstract and affect-level side of knowing, whereas mine point to a more maximalist, descriptive rendering. Same picture, though. Or so it seems.

Thought the same.
Two entirely bookend ways of describing an idea that is very similar.
 
Probably just that I'm a bit smarter and better looking than you that creates our slightly alternative paradigms.
 
Probably just that I'm a bit smarter and better looking than you that creates our slightly alternative paradigms.
[MENTION=1]Jason[/MENTION],

please be a rad dude and build a function where I can like someone's like. For example, I want to like that [MENTION=840]fishonjazz[/MENTION] likes this post SOOOO MUCH.
 
I've never lost my appreciation of the instances where nobody is trolling and some butthurt dude gets caught in his own net anyway.
 
- Bills paid for w/ some spending money

- Two days off of work a week

- Spending time with the girlfriend
 
I don't think it's hippy. I think it's human nature. We have domesticated to one level or another lots of animals. Dogs, cats, pigs, birds, horses...

I have two dogs and they are part of the family. They sleep in my room, play with the kids, eat Saturday morning breakfast with us, go on walks...house would feel less without them.

You allow yer pets indoors? That is absolutely disgusting. I bet your house reeks of pee an dander.
Back in my day we made pets sleep outside kids do chores an work an taught them how to cross a street.
These days pets are family an we have crossing guards at every intersection.
Nobody knows how to work hard all the kids expect instant gratification.

Who am I inpersonating?
 
Back
Top