DU: Please tell me what is left in the world.

[otherlander]

I have not the time or will to give a play-by-play, suffice to say that a series of events in the realm of political organizing have reminded me that we are only able to live because we can assume that certain things that were true yesterday will be true tomorrow. I have also realized that people need to manage their fear of mortality with something, and when it isn't religion, it's often political factionalism: Our deaths, they say, will be softened, if not by an afterlife, than by our ideas outliving us, and by tomorrow's grandchildren crediting us with the creation of a beautiful new world- which is a nice sentiment, until every theoretical disagreement gets treated like an issue of moral superiority, and well-meaning people hurt each other so much that they burn out and drop out of the struggle before having a chance to get together with the next generation of seekers and pool their wisdom together. And so we must start all over again, again from square one, again and again, even when it seems like there is nothing left but infighting and degradation-
So please, tell me about other things that are left in the world. Personal achievements, acts of creation, political accomplishments, cultural customs, preservation of meaning, coming-togethers of fellow travelers- anything.

[Taverner]

1. There is the now - and that's all there is

You will never live in the future and the past is gone before you even realize you're in it

Take pleasure in right now

And that's about it

[Bonobo]

4. Nice. nt

[timeforpeace]

14. That's true. And this is Heaven so don't wait for it, enjoy it now.

[Oregone]

2. "'Tis well said," replied Candide, "but we must cultivate our gardens."

[Bonobo]

3. Life. There is life.

If not for humans, than for the remainder of the species that manage to adapt.
They are the expression of the force of the Universe. They are the flow of energy of the Earth.
They will remain. When we are gone.
It means nothing.
So just dance.

[Taverner]

5. Both of our posts were saying the same thing

Only you said it better

[Statistical]

8. Well that will only last for about another 3 billion years.

Man being the only intelligent species in the solar system is the only one capable of reaching another star eventually. If we don't then life die out once the sun does.

[csziggy]

9. +1000

[hfojvt]

13. what about rocks?

There are rocks too. Won't they remain. Even after entropy winds everything down to nothing won't there still be rcoks, just sitting there being rocks?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7kjvi_wEkjM

edit: and what about islands?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_EE7JViyoiY&NR=1

[Bonobo]

15. I love rocks. nt

[Bonobo]

17. Is that a new form of "Rick Roll"? LOL

[hfojvt]

18. made just for old hippies

it's Rick, man

[MineralMan]

6. Relationships with other people. Love.

Those are the important things. Politics is not nearly important. If you don't have the good relationships and love, nothing else works.

[otherlander]

11. I think

that I've done a pretty good job of integrating the personal and the political- why would I do this if not for love?

[AlienGirl]

28. What if you absolutely suck at that kind of thing? nt

[MineralMan]

29. Most of us suck at something, until we learn how to do it.

If you suck at relationships, there are ways to learn how to fix that. I'm not in that business, though.

[BlooInBloo]

7. My sig.

Stop looking "out there" for meaning. Go make some of your own. :)

[otherlander]

12. I believe I am doing so.

And I believe I am allowed to mourn.

[sandnsea]

10. Be a giver, not a taker

On balance.

[vadawg]

16. sports, become the ultimate sports fan, pick a team and you have a lifetime of fun and facts..

[hfojvt]

19. are you saying you want your money back?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EmgJ5RowTqE

"What about love?

It's defective! It's never built to really last."

"What about friends?

They're defective. All the parts are out of stock!"

[otherlander]

20. Now I remember

why I stopped posting on DU for a bunch of months: I post something like this, and it gets unrec'd to <0, and Jesus fucking Christ I don't know what the hell else people expect of me; I have been fighting I am fighting and writing about things in an attempt to make them make sense, and talking to people and trying to make things happen, and I come here to hopefully a group of like-minded people to seek some kind of understanding, maybe clarity but seeking clarity's always a shot in the dark, and now I almost wish that I hadn't posted it at all-
But c'mon, y'all are an intelligent group of folks- I posted this here instead of the Lounge in hope of more serious responses.

Brag. About the things you've made happen.
Tell stories. About war or hitchhiking or riots or Buddhism or late-night conversations or interesting hallucinations or making rent or making dinner.
Tell me about someone over the age of 40 who still sees evidence that things can be made better, thus proving that any hope I hold isn't merely a delusion of youth.

[Bonobo]

22. I was as serious as a heart attack with my response, but...

I don't know what you want, let alone what you NEED.
Personally, I think perspective helps. Struggle is a constant in life. If you're tired, you can always stop swimmin'.

[Hekate]

25. My post below is as serious as it can be. And boy o boy am I over 40...

You were not meant to suffer, but to free yourself from suffering and still have compassion for others.

May you be happy
May you be peaceful
May you be free.

Hekate

[undergroundpanther]

33. Otherlander

They are stupid.Scared and they do not understand the question.
I know what you are asking ,I ask the same question everyday.

I have come to the conclusion there are three things in the way,
#1 The effects and perpetuation of trauma upon conscious beings. Because trauma effects big numbers of individuals it affects how they see themselves, how they perceive others & relationships ,the world,and by extension trauma effects how society runs.


#2 There are certain personalities along the likes of psychopaths,authoritarians and narcissists. These people feel no distress over causing the suffering of others,yet they make everyone around themselves sick or traumatized.There is no cure for a toxic personality.

#3 Nature is a bloody clawed monster. Yeah,we are not running from tigers in the tall grass,fearing getting caught and eaten, or dying alone anymore,Civilization has insulated people from the most part from natural predators.


#4 our imaginations are so vast, so vivid we can create all kinds of beautiful worlds,in our minds our flaws go away. We are strong stunning and gods.We can feel at peace..and we cannot ever really share it or experience it beyond doing art or other expressions that wind up stymied or restrained by the budget.Living with arbitrary lack deliberately created by the people profiting off the unjustness of this social hierarchy inside an exploiting wage civilization system is traumatic..That is killing us like a cancer.It is not easy to see this thing since we grow up surrounded by it's coercive effects.


In a civilized state we get to dodge human predators. It's insane that we are forced to pay the rich to exist.And the stress of it eats us alive.Either we are running from the past,each other,from life,from bullies,from poverty, from human made threats.. So we end up running from criminals in the street or running from the state gone rogue, or a gaggle of corporate mercenaries shooting civilians for sport and get shot and die alone.

Not much of an Improvement is it? It is still traumatizing to live in reality.We can try to run from bill collectors or from lions both are predatory aiming to take and to consume.

I think humanity is becoming more and more anthrocidal because humanity is being abused by leaders corporations,and other people invented abuse and by it's actions it looks like humanity is insane it wants to kill the world(mother) that spawned this human condition in nature and civilization via psychopaths authoritarians and psychopaths..(traumatization).

[Fire Walk With Me]

21. Incredible potential is still left in the world.

Sadly, under-used potential, but there it is, waiting for us to embrace it whole-heartedly.

[Hekate]

23. Earth, Air, Fire, Water, Spirit... how beautiful, how beautiful. Get up from your keyboard awhile...

Take a walk in the nearest park or along the nearest shore of any body of water. Just breathe. No cellphone, no computer. Just breathe.

I take refuge in the present moment. The present moment is all there is.

One night as I sat in my study tormented by a dispute with someone who had hurt me that I couldn't resolve, my husband came in and put his hand on my shoulder. He gave me a mantra from Thich Nhat Hanh, the Buddhist monk who has spent his life teaching peace:

May I be happy
May I be peaceful
May I be free

I realized that at bottom I did not think I was worthy of praying for these things for myself. That in itself was a lesson. But it starts with me (you), in the present moment.

May you be happy
May you be peaceful
May you be free from suffering

Namaste.

Hekate

[AlienGirl]

24. Certainty (A Poem for Comfort)

When everything else
is running off-kilter around me
they're always there, cold friends.
Some of them I know by name
electron, proton, positron,
quarks up and down and strange
and charmed. I thought
I was living a charmed life,
but it was only strange.

The uncertainty of particles is better
than the uncertainty of living, or at least
it's less scary. I'm scared all the time now
trying not to collapse into myself.

Those cosmic rays are still at it
going right through me as if I were a ghost
and maybe the way you need
that sneaky square root of minus one
to solve the universe (or even build a TV set)
holds out hope of immortality: if i
is real, and necessary,
maybe so am I?

In the closest thing to total vacuum
particles come and go, sometimes tending to exist.
Sometimes
I tend to hope, but too often
hope flickers back into the void, leaving
the closest thing to total despair.

The net energy of the entire universe
may be zero: each star cancelled out by its own death
space imploding back toward its beginning. That's
the sound of one hand clapping.

Yet the unused six dimensions
are curled up smaller than atoms.
Everything that is might be the vibration
of threads too small to see,
musical notes of superstrings.
Take two particles from the same source
separate them, any distance will do,
and what you do to one of them
will instantly affect the other. (As I
am affected by you.)
At this smallest level the usual rules don't apply
time is just a field to roam in
ghosts occur
miracles are the order of the day.
This is where the solid daily world comes from,
all these mysteries and miracles
built upon each other until they seem ordinary.

[AlienGirl]

26. Jane Goodall says there's reason for hope. nt

[dana_b]

27. what is left

imo - friendship, love, people and music.

A good friend of mine is a well known musician who does everything he can for the less fortunate. He played last weekend at the Hardly, Strictly Bluegrass festival in San Francisco and is playing in Los Angeles today. He cares about people he doesn't know and fights for them every day. The organization he developed helps to feed the poor and inform people - especially young people- of political and justice issues. One of the organizations he supports and introduced me too is Food Not Bombs.

I got involved with them in San Francisco and I tell you - they are an amazing organization. They go out every night at the UN Plaza and feed the homeless. They get the food from places that are willing to donate their left overs. The people receiving the meals are soooo grateful. Most are warm hearted intelligent folks who have fallen on hard times.

working with them, knowing my friend, relating to the music he creates, meeting these extraordinary people - this makes it all worth while and shows me the good that is left in this world.

[Sinti]

30. There's an old business canard that's oddly appropriate

The greater the challenge - the greater the opportunity. The more wrong things look at this time, the more chance we have on creating something much better.

Actually, more people are kind of waking up to a realization that we stand or fall together, as a human race, and as part of the natural world, if you will.

Here's a handful of people who are trying something:
Global Mindshift
Wine To Water - found here the other day
The National Association of Free Clinics

Don't let your heart get weary. You can only control what you personally do, and what you think.

Other folks often get handed this pain (from the time they are children) and then try to hand it off to everyone else they meet. Even people who are trying to do good works do this - they get angry and frustrated and burned out, so they lash out. It's not their fault, nobody ever told they they don't have to accept the pain in the first place.

What you can do is not accept it - just realize that they are expressing the pain that's inside of them. They're trying to hand it to you thinking they'll hurt less - so the virus spreads. Don't be a carrier - simply refuse. You can personally choose to refuse to pass on the pain they offer and pass on love instead - but you can only make that choice for you :)

Time moves forward, progress is inevitable and change is the only constant.

[ZombieHorde]

31. Are you talking about legacy? Are you afraid you will die and not leave a mark on the world? nt

[handmade34]

32. very interesting liminal time right now

much loss, much hope, much confusion... you must be feeling what I and so many others are, even if for quite different reasons: though, I don't fear death and/or mortality. I flew into Vermont this weekend to get my driver's license renewed and to see my kids. It was raining but the colors were still beautiful and I stopped at the Cider Mill in Stowe and bought fresh cider and hot cider donuts this morning. I pulled off at a stop on I-89 on my way to Burlington. A biker pulled in behind me and I went over and gave him a couple of the still warm donuts. We smiled. I got to UVM, met up with my son, bought him a funky pair of slacks at Goodwill, ate a good sandwich outside and then went to see one of his friends race(Bike). I will be, too soon, getting on a plane early tomorrow morning to go back to my work in Chicago. I can't expect more right now... We are lost as a society right now. Our cultural traditions are mush, people are confused and the answers aren't apparent to most people. There are answers though...

[lumberjack_jeff]

34. Dirt and a well-made shovel. n/t

[Odin2005]

35. Love. Friendship. Nature. Wonder. Existence. Brilliance. Discovery. Creativity.

[bvar22]

36. Where I find my peace.

A sun warmed tomato grown from a seed without chemical pesticides or unnatural fertilizers, cared for daily, and picked at the moment of perfect ripeness.
Now that the tomatoes are gone for today, the anticipation of next year's harvest.