LETTERS TO STRANGERS
...WORDS I HAVE POSTED PUBLICALLY IN VARIOUS PLACES IN RESPONSE TO OTHERS WORDS...
...a friend is a stranger waiting to be met...
On Perception
THERE'S ALWAYS HOPE... (I HOPE...) THERE'S ALWAYS HOPE... (I HOPE...) THERE'S ALWAYS HOPE... (I HOPE...) THERE'S ALWAYS HOPE...
who's eyes can we use to see
>I don't think it's possible for there to be a good time for a flat tire.
LETTERS TO STRANGERS
...WORDS I HAVE POSTED PUBLICALLY IN VARIOUS PLACES IN RESPONSE TO OTHERS WORDS...
...a friend is a stranger waiting to be met...
On Perception
January 14, 2000
>>
>>>"we don't see things as they are so much as we are"
>>>If you come to ASD and see hopelessness instead of hopefulness,
>>>or if you go to ASL and see loneliness instead of people coming
>>>together, these things you see are reflections of how you are.
>
>"ric" wrote:
>>in all seriousness, these are some of the wisest words I've seen
>>posted on the Usenet in some time and I applaud you...
>>please share your pearls of wacky wisdom anytime :)
>
>I wrote a whole response and then my computer froze. I'll try to
>reconstruct it a little.
>
s'ok... I lost about 80% of the posts here sometime in the last few hours... might have to reset this group (I'm in a.s.l.) if I find out I'm missing responses... ghosts (or bugs) in the machines :)
>Thanks :-) It's a theme I keep chewing on here a lot. (And usually in
>convoluted ways that cause people to scratch their heads and read it
>again 5 times over.) This particular quote "we don't see things as they
>are so much as we are", I got from the book Prozac Nation where it
>was attributed to the Talmud (a very old book of rabbi's comments on
>the torah/old testiment). But there are other ways to express various
>aspects of this sort of concept.
>
I saved the quote in my sigfile folder and appreciate it... and the first one below is another I can relate to well... it's a theme I believe in and is a fundamental aspect of my personal philosophy...
your writing style, as you describe it, sounds very familiar to me (LAM) for I tend to babble on and on... sometimes it's aimless, bu often (uh-oh, giving away secrets) it's my way of trying to find the "right words" to express something exactly as I intend to mean it... and in a way another person might understand it as I mean it... wonder if that's what Talmud writers were doing too ;)
>The response you get is to the question you asked.
>The grass is always greener on the other side.
>Beauty is in the eye of the beholder.
>Man is the measure of all things.
>
>Each of these tries to emphasize that what we see is dependent on
>what we are. It's not that man *is* all things. It's not that we make
>everything up in our minds and nothing would exist if we didn't. It's
>that we give everything value. Nothing has inherent value on it's own.
>Man is the *measure* of all things. And the value (measure) that we give
>things is a reflection of ourselves.
>
what more can I do but smile in agreement? (oh, well, I could do more... but this is so well written)... just my value judgement, of course :)
who's mind can we use to think
who's heart can we use to feel
what makes everything real?
who's ears can we use to hear
who's hand can we use to touch
who's life can we use to know
who we are in life's show?
>But there is really nothing inherently bad about a flat tire. If that
>flat tire prevented me from getting into an accident farther on down the
>road, it might have saved my life. But I am much more likely to see a
>flat tire as a pain in the ass and something that can ruin an otherwise
>sunny day. That's me. Flat tires depress me.
>
well explained from my perspective...
I'm pondering flat tires... for me, there's not much good in them unless I imagine, as you did above, some better change of events that might of happened... though I've actually had some good experiences with flat tires so they're not a negative automatically... my usual way of perceiving everything is as an opportunity...
>If you come to ASD and it makes you feel depressed because all
>you see is hopelessness and dispair, well, I can understand that.
>But if you stay, or if you leave but cannot shake the saddness, then
I think that says something about you as the measure of all things.
>
I don't think I can come over there until I get a grown up computer (wanting to read more is more incentive to shop for one, so thanks... I use a laptop and it's hard drive is maxed out to the point of amazing me that it's still running fine most of the time)... I tried adding a medium sized NG last week and it didn't go well... a lot of posts in a.s.d?
honest love, ric
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