Love this. Can not wait till I can move up from travel trailer to a proper park home. I have been living gypsie style for 18 years.
What are the minimal accomplishments needed to satisfy you?
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Love this. Can not wait till I can move up from travel trailer to a proper park home. I have been living gypsie style for 18 years.
MVP
Well-Known Member
Property costs are very reasonable. Food is expensive. But otherwise is no tax heaven.
MVP
Well-Known Member
I apologize in advance for the depressing aspects of the following.
I've been thinking some about this because I now have a disease that will kill me in a few years (barring the proverbial bus or a miracle cure). Poor health for the past decade has caused a decrease in my salary/earning capability of more than 50%. I live in my mother's basement. My car is 11 years old. I haven't done anything great and glorious in the eyes of the world. I haven't had children so have no future legacy. I now have a list of activities that I will never be able to do again. However . . .
I'm discovering that none of that matters much. In trying to find meaning in my life, I realize that it consists of the memories I've made, the people I love, living in the present moment, and the little things that make me happy (a good laugh, a meaningful conversation, a wonderful book, an entertaining movie, a hug from a child). And I feel so grateful. I'm proud of my life. I've done pretty well with what I have been given, and I like the person I've become. I have so many amazing people in my life that I love and who love me. I have tried to leave the world a little bit better than I have found it. Those are the minimal accomplishments that I need to have had a full life. No one will be begging to write my biography, and no one will remember me in 100 years, and that's just fine with me.
I've been thinking some about this because I now have a disease that will kill me in a few years (barring the proverbial bus or a miracle cure). Poor health for the past decade has caused a decrease in my salary/earning capability of more than 50%. I live in my mother's basement. My car is 11 years old. I haven't done anything great and glorious in the eyes of the world. I haven't had children so have no future legacy. I now have a list of activities that I will never be able to do again. However . . .
I'm discovering that none of that matters much. In trying to find meaning in my life, I realize that it consists of the memories I've made, the people I love, living in the present moment, and the little things that make me happy (a good laugh, a meaningful conversation, a wonderful book, an entertaining movie, a hug from a child). And I feel so grateful. I'm proud of my life. I've done pretty well with what I have been given, and I like the person I've become. I have so many amazing people in my life that I love and who love me. I have tried to leave the world a little bit better than I have found it. Those are the minimal accomplishments that I need to have had a full life. No one will be begging to write my biography, and no one will remember me in 100 years, and that's just fine with me.
MVP
Well-Known Member
Hey, as long as you are happy. Stay positive, medicine is advancing in huge steps day by day, one day cure may be there for your medical problem.
I am at a bit of a crossroad in my life at the moment as well there have been roughly 4 chapters:
Chapter 1: Age 0-12, living in Thailand as a young boy
Chapter 2: Age 13-18 Highschool years in NZ
Chapter 3: Age 19-28 Left home, graduated Uni, worked away from home
Chapter 4: Age 29-35 Moved back home to run a family business
In about 2 years I am about to move on to Chapter 5 in which I plan to move back to Bangkok. This is another crossroad and therefore I will need to re-assess my life to see what I've learnt, what went right, and what went wrong, and how I want to live my life in the future.
In that regard I have done a lot of soul searching the past couple of months and have come to the following conclusions:
- To borrow your term 'Legacy'... what is a 'Legacy'? Do I need to have children who carried out my surname to have 'Legacy'? What's the point of having a 'Legacy' if I'm not alive to enjoy that said 'Legacy'?
- On that basis what do I need to get married? Or have children?
- What if I can find 'Inner Peace' right now, being 'content' just being by myself, doing all the things that I enjoy right now?
- Do I want a life full of 'striving' to make more $$$ to buy more and more material 'stuff' that I don't need, or do I want a life of minimal material things, but contentment in my heart?
- What do we truly 'own' in this life? Nothing!! All there is, is this 'present moment' really.
- etc, etc...
That's why my answer in this thread was, and still is, Inner Peace - and it makes me wonder whether it is all I need right now, and all I will ever need.
How'd you end up a Jazz fan?
Well in Chapter 2 (i.e., my high school days), it was between 1995-1999, I watched the Jazz on TV quite a bit through ESPN.. against the Sonics, etc, in playoffs. I loved watching John Stockton play in particular, the creativity in his passes, etc. I just thought it was such a beautiful way to play the game instead of the 1-on-1 selfish drive & layups, etc. So I became a Jazz fan around that time.
Then at the same time at school we asian students used play basketball during lunchtime all the time because there was not much to do... (while kiwi kids played rugby & cricket in the fields). I used to love emulating how Stockton make his passes (I wasn't very tall, haha.. ), quick short passes, longer lead passes, bounce passes (my favourite). For me it was fun setting up my teammates for layups, for easy wide open jumpshots. I wasn't interesting in scoring very much at all, just love getting guys easy baskets.
It was great having somebody like John Stockton to look up to and emulate and say to myself, 'you don't always have to be the tallest or the most athletic to make a different'.
Good times.
I have surmised from knowing you on this forum that you tend to lean from belief in God.
I don't judge, AT ALL. I just want to say that what we do on a daily basis, over the course of a lifetime, makes a profound influence on the world. Sounds bold, I know.. Perhaps I should have said "on those we love" or upon "those we come into contact with."
But I think it's a ripple... like a sound wave, radio wave, a thought, an idea.. The smallest of these travel endlessly over time.
Be mindful of this. Not only in reflection, but in each day... whether it be 1 day, 3 years, or many more. I have no doubt you are a very special, giving, and caring person. The world is better for you and I thank you for it.
My wife thought she was going to die a few years ago. I thought she was going to shoot me first. There was a huge blowup and she took off, went to see her mother, took a walk in the park in Stokesville, aka Cedar City. A woman approached her sympathetically, saying she knew what she was going through, and told of her own imminent passing. Said the hardest thing about it was leaving her children behind. Said it was only a few more months for her, said the realization came to her that from God's point of view, her kids were His kids too. . .. an understanding that God feels much like we do, seeing His children come here, looking forward to their return. She said she realized that even with her gone, she'd "be with them in Spirit", as God can be with us, if we let Him.
Anyway, my fire-breathing wife who had been so upset for me and my cavalier uncaringness, as she took it on noticing that I was not just all broken up with her illness exactly. . . . called me up, and demanded I give her one of those Mormon "blessings". I said I had no blessing to give, all I could do was whatever God would do through me. Again she was upset, said how uncaring I was. I said only God could really give a blessing, and that it would depend on her faith, not mine, but that I would talk to some people I knew whom I thought could help. I decided I needed to work on my attitude to prepare for what she was asking, I got the people together to come help.
When the day came, and the blessing was given, she experienced a profound peace about it all. The Blessing was that since she had lived a life of service to others, she would live to raise her daughters. I sensed that God's plan had been changed, that whereas she had been about to be called home, she was given some more time. It was because of the lady in the park in Cedar City that any of this happened. I could not even know who she was, but I am deeply indebted to her for making a difference. Talking about her pain in regard to not being able to be with her children really triggered a change in my wife.
Well, I wouldn't guess you're Mormon, but I think this sort of thing happens with all kinds of people. There are not any people God does not love, Even Siro. Even my father who was such a scientist he couldn't see the sense in religion. We're only here for a few years. We get to live under circumstances of objective liberty to think as we please, and, well, despite governmental and managerial types with extensive lists of what we must do, we still get to fundamentally do what we want. It's a time of self-awareness, of personal choosing. And then we go home, and get to think about it all some more.
After all is said and done, I have made it my main point to show God that I love Him with the choices of my life.
When I was seventeen, the prettiest and nicest girl in the high school decided to be my friend, sat herself down next to me in all our classes, smiled, talked, and praised me. I was a bit backward, had never dated anyone. True, she knew my family, she was in my ward, my sister had been the regular babysitter when she had been a child, her father was my bishop, all that. One day, after an after-school extra-credit experiment in the chemistry lab we did together, she just started talking personal stuff, said some things about marriage, talked about her married older sister..... I had a sort of clear realization, an epiphany of sorts, an undeniable realization that she was not going live to get married. I couldn't say anything about it, I just kept that in mind. I think it helped me to open up some and be that same kind of appreciative friend that she was. No pressure, no nonsense. She was the best friend I ever had, though my present wife is running up a record of service that should rank her in the same class. The wife does a higher sort of service in telling me everything that's wrong with me, God bless her, even while she insists she loves me more than anyone ever could.
The nice classmate who told me all the things she admired in me was killed a few years later, in a car crash. The driver was having a hard time in the hospital knowing it was "his fault" she died. My friend had worked in that hospital, and some people asked me to go talk to him. I went, and told him some stuff about her and how I knew she was OK. A few years later, her parents told me how that daughter had clearly spoken to them, and warned them of danger that would have cost their lives.
When I think of the next life, I think of her. Well, and of my mom, and grandfather, and some other friends. . . It can't be so bad, really.
I had considered her "angelic" when she was here. Stuff like this is not so uncommon, really, most people dismiss it as fanciful thinking or just don't talk about it, or if they do, not very often.
You've got some time, you know some people who matter a lot to you. Do stuff with them, for them. Tell them you love them. These connections will make a difference. You will be building bridges between now and eternity.
Oh oh, here it is. I meant for this thread to be about BJs and stuff but you guys took it all deep and now here's what you get.
MVP
Well-Known Member
You should challenge Amazing Randi for 1 million. But seeing as you live in supernatural world money may not be important to you?
I have had people ask if my illness has changed my mind about religion and my choice to leave it. It has not, but I suppose it could at some point (anything is possible). I highly doubt it, though. I did not leave on a whim, and my decision was well thought out. My choices are the right ones for me, as I hope everyone's are for them.
"Live a good life. If there are gods and they are just, then they will not care how devout you have been, but will welcome you based on the virtues you have lived by. If there are gods, but unjust, then you should not want to worship them. If there are no gods, then you will be gone, but will have lived a noble life that will live on in the memories of your loved ones. I am not afraid." (Marcus Aurelius)
"Live a good life. If there are gods and they are just, then they will not care how devout you have been, but will welcome you based on the virtues you have lived by. If there are gods, but unjust, then you should not want to worship them. If there are no gods, then you will be gone, but will have lived a noble life that will live on in the memories of your loved ones. I am not afraid." (Marcus Aurelius)
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Legacy may have been the wrong word to use - posterity would be more appropriate. I don't regret not having married and having children. It is the way my life worked out.
We all spend 3/4 of our lives accumulating stuff and the last 1/4 trying to get rid of it. I wish a more minimal life had been my goal all along. Now I have a ton of stuff to dispose of and little energy to do so. Much of it has been in storage for 9 years and I've learned how little I actually need to live well.
Contentment and inner peace are admirable goals and will take you further than many others.
Eating chocolate every day - my necessary minimal accomplishment.
A hot mamacita Moses with a Teflon vagina that needs to bang 5 times a day with the last being a 2 hour session ending with anal an her screaming YOU ARE THE ROCK DWAYNE JOHNSON.
But that will never happen cause I look like Sammy Hagar or that blond guy on Dumb and Dumber.
lol. I want whatever mental disease you have.
Why do guys keep pretending they could actually maintain this schedule?
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hahah