| Author | Message | ||
     Des (Des) Username: Des Registered: 09-2010 Posted From: 86.169.221.108 |
Has anyone ever thought about not trying at fulfilling one's dream any more? And just relaxing and enjoying life? Deal or No Deal? Dream or no Dream? | ||
| Kate (Kathleen) Username: Kathleen Registered: 09-2009 Posted From: 86.131.0.116 |
What if enjoying one's life IS one's dream? | ||
| Craig (Craig) Username: Craig Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 99.126.164.88 |
Do tell how, Des... I'd sure be happy to know the secret....  | ||
| Tony (Tony) Username: Tony Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 86.143.135.212 |
Why post that link, Craig? People keep doing it on here, a link to Mario games and such. Des, I think that's too hard. Life is so quietly stressful I find it almost impossible to find pleasure anymore in simple things. | ||
| Craig (Craig) Username: Craig Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 99.126.164.88 |
What link, Tony? Did a link appear I don't know about? | ||
| Tony (Tony) Username: Tony Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 86.143.135.212 |
Under 'the secret' it sort of lit up, then when I clicked it it led me to a shitty site. | ||
| Craig (Craig) Username: Craig Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 99.126.164.88 |
Um, that's not me - I've seen that on other sites, where you get a double blue line beneath random words, and they lead to links - that's usually related to the website, right?... or the server?... I don't see them on my computer, but no, that's certainly not me - that might be something Gary might want to investigate, perhaps?... From the sublime to the ridiculous. Isn't that the essence of life!  | ||
| Tony (Tony) Username: Tony Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 86.143.135.212 |
Found it! Some crap called Mr Magoo. He's gone. | ||
| Carolinec (Carolinec) Username: Carolinec Registered: 06-2009 Posted From: 92.232.199.129 |
>>What if enjoying one's life IS one's dream?<< I think that sums it up for me, Kate!  I spent a good deal of my life wrapped up in negativity - it's only in recent years that I've managed to get away from that kind of thinking and start enjoying myself. Funny how, as soon as my physical health takes a nose-dive, my mental health goes in the opposite direction! Craig, Tony - you guys sound so low at the moment (on another thread too). I wish I could do something to help lift you both. All I can say is - been there, done that, got the T-shirt. It *will* get better - but only you guys can find what ever it takes to lift you up again (I can send you both some of these though ...  .. one each!) Seriously, though, you look after yourselves. Life *is* good - it just probably doesn't feel much like it for you at the moment. | ||
| Zed (Gary_mc) Username: Gary_mc Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 81.96.253.77 |
Nope. For me, the whole purpose of life is to push forward, try to make your dreams a reality. Otherwise, what's the point? Of course, you have to enjoy the struggle - that's part of the point, too. I enjoy every second of my life. Even the shit stuff. Better that than death. | ||
| Carolinec (Carolinec) Username: Carolinec Registered: 06-2009 Posted From: 92.232.199.129 |
>>Of course, you have to enjoy the struggle - that's part of the point, too.<< Yes!! You said it, Zed. | ||
| Craig (Craig) Username: Craig Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 99.126.164.88 |
Thanks, Caroline! It does help to know there's other sympathetic souls out there.... | ||
| Des (Des) Username: Des Registered: 09-2010 Posted From: 86.169.221.108 |
My sympathies, too. How can you change the unchangeable. You are fixed by your Natal Horoscope FOREVER (mine is HERE)- but, meanwhile, it's something you can USE creatively and ADAPT. But you can use it and adapt it only if you are aware of its existence, its forces and harmonics. | ||
| Darren O. Godfrey (Darren_o_godfrey) Username: Darren_o_godfrey Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 207.200.116.133 |
It may sound silly, but I sometimes forget what my life's dream actually is. Or, perhaps, not so much forget as lose track. I get mired in the sticky stuff of day-to-day living and I lose focus, but then, on the odd lucky day, it'll come back to me, sometimes in a rush, striking as an epiphany. The meaning(s) of my life and what I feel I'm here to do takes hold again. And that's a big part of my enjoyment of life. (The others are my daughters, and certain foods and beverages.) | ||
| Rhysaurus (Rhysaurus) Username: Rhysaurus Registered: 01-2010 Posted From: 80.4.12.3 |
What if your life's dream is something you can't mention in front of other people? Because they would try and stop you achieving it if they knew? What do you do then: pretend not to have that particular dream? Just a thought... | ||
| Des (Des) Username: Des Registered: 09-2010 Posted From: 86.169.221.108 |
I don't think telling other people about your dream (or not) affects the fact it is your personal dream to fulfil. It may affect, however, the way you go about it. | ||
| Hubert (Hubert) Username: Hubert Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 78.22.237.21 |
One dream I do have is to try and stay healthy as long as I can. So far so good - my eyesight is not what it was, but otherwise all systems are still go. I'm beginning to lose friends - suicide, cancer, car accidents - and I've had to visit a few in hospital where they were convalescing from various ailments, whereas I am still free from all that. | ||
| Craig (Craig) Username: Craig Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 99.126.164.88 |
Des - do you really believe in natal horoscopes?... I'm not being at all condescending, I am curious - I wish I could believe in such things, I think it would make life easier (i.e., a fixed system of beliefs, rational systems, meanings and solutions and reasons from any source, imho, just makes life that much easier). I have a good friend who literally lives his life around his horoscope... and seems content to.... I know abstractly that if I were to lose, say, my left arm, it would suddenly be revealed to me what the secret to life was: having two arms. How you get to that place of knowledge without actually LOSING the arm, though, is the trick I've not learned yet....  | ||
| Gary Fry (Gary_fry) Username: Gary_fry Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 86.31.227.164 |
My dream is to become financially independent, remain healthy and have the (relative) freedom to do what I choose in life. That above all others governs my every activity. I've given myself another 10 years max to achieve this. Then I hope my austerity plan wiill have paid off! | ||
| Des (Des) Username: Des Registered: 09-2010 Posted From: 86.169.221.108 |
Craig, I do believe in a force of synchronicity (not cause and effect) with which each person is endowed at birth and this is possibly symbolised by an ascertainable pattern, such as a Natal Chart. It may be useful to work along the lines of being enabled not determined by that pattern. | ||
| Huw (Huw) Username: Huw Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 61.216.49.168 |
Des, you and share the same ascendant (Leo) and midheaven (Aries). | ||
| Mbfg (Mbfg) Username: Mbfg Registered: 09-2010 Posted From: 212.219.63.204 |
I think, realistically, living a dream is the icing on the cake of life. We make our happiness where we can and draw it out of the life we lead. We writers have, I think, an advantage because writing is our dream and we are able to partake of it, and occasionally, the dream really does turn Technicolor because we achieve some success or other. But even then, even if we get signed up and sell lots of books and garner an award or two, we still have to get up in the morning and change the baby's nappies and scrape ice off the car in the morning. I don’t mean this in a pessimistic way, but I’m being realistic, it is the mundane that makes the fulfilment of a dream that much brighter. Also, a pall hangs over everyone at the moment; the economy, the truths about the bastards who lead us, all this is dampening our spirits and causing us to look even deeper into ourselves and ours for our peace and happiness. Does this sound like Terry’ Christmas Message? Cheers Terry | ||
| Zed (Gary_mc) Username: Gary_mc Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 195.166.117.210 |
The reward is in chasing your dreams; catching them is simply an added bonus. | ||
| Weber (Weber_gregston) Username: Weber_gregston Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 194.176.105.55 |
You should write those inspirational posters Zed. | ||
| Johnny_mains (Johnny_mains) Username: Johnny_mains Registered: 04-2010 Posted From: 86.31.118.252 |
I fulfilled my dream earlier on this year by getting all those Pan Horror authors and artists together for the first and probably last time. The rest is just icing on the cake. | ||
| Des (Des) Username: Des Registered: 09-2010 Posted From: 86.169.221.108 |
The reward is in chasing your dreams; catching them is simply an added bonus. ============== Indeed there is some general truth to that statement - but I suggest chasing dreams does entail catching at least a few of them or, for some people, the whole busines may become tarnished - eventually. I don't mean that in any downbeat way, but a case of realism that people often don't achieve their dreams. The art of happiness may be in accepting that fact. | ||
| Zed (Gary_mc) Username: Gary_mc Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 195.166.117.210 |
I've achieved every dream (although goal is a more realistic term; dreams are for dreamers and I'm wide awake) I ever had: I just keep thinking up new ones to chase after. but a case of realism that people often don't achieve their dreams. The art of happiness may be in accepting that fact. Very true, Des... | ||
| Weber (Weber_gregston) Username: Weber_gregston Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 194.176.105.55 |
Aim for the stars - if you miss you'll still be over the moon... bleugh... | ||
| Zed (Gary_mc) Username: Gary_mc Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 195.166.117.210 |
It's true, though, Weber. Life's a battle; if you don't keep fighting your're fucked. | ||
| Weber (Weber_gregston) Username: Weber_gregston Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 194.176.105.55 |
I'd buy that last one as a poster.... | ||
| Zed (Gary_mc) Username: Gary_mc Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 195.166.117.210 |
 | ||
| Rhysaurus (Rhysaurus) Username: Rhysaurus Registered: 01-2010 Posted From: 212.219.233.223 |
> I've achieved every dream (although goal is a more realistic term; dreams are for dreamers and I'm wide awake) I ever had. Bollocks, Gary! I know for a fact that your main dream/goal is to get lost in a deep impenetrable valley formed by two giant boobies; and it's plain to me that you haven't achieved that dream, because if you had, you'd never have come back out. So your claim proves that at the very least you're a pathological exaggerator! | ||
| Zed (Gary_mc) Username: Gary_mc Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 195.166.117.210 |
Ah, but that shows how little you actually know me, Rhys. I'm not even a boob man; I'm a bum-and-thigs man. I simply find the word boobies hysterically funny and a great way of deflating pomposity. | ||
| Zed (Gary_mc) Username: Gary_mc Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 195.166.117.210 |
thighs, even... | ||
| Rhysaurus (Rhysaurus) Username: Rhysaurus Registered: 01-2010 Posted From: 212.219.233.223 |
Bollocks, boobies, bums and thighs all in the space of five lines. Now that's what I call efficiency! | ||
| Des (Des) Username: Des Registered: 09-2010 Posted From: 86.169.221.108 |
My life's been full of boobies and other mistakes. (Including this post). | ||
| Rhysaurus (Rhysaurus) Username: Rhysaurus Registered: 01-2010 Posted From: 212.219.233.223 |
Des, have you been watching (or have watched) these: http://www.channel4.com/programmes/philosophy-a-guide-to-happiness The approach you demonstrated above ("...people often don't achieve their dreams. The art of happiness may be in accepting that fact.") is related to the programme on Seneca. Gary's approach is more related to Nietzsche's. This is not a bad series of programmes at all, and makes considerably more uplifting viewing that stuff like this: http://www.collateralmurder.com/ Which, unfortunately, is "realism" for some people... | ||
| Joel (Joel) Username: Joel Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 217.37.199.45 |
Can I take this opportunity to recommend Robert Crumb's graphic novel version of the Book of Genesis? A magnificent project that took up (as I recall) a decade of his life, it reaffirms the Jewish identity of a text too often viewed (at least in the USA) through a Christian lens, and celebrates the harsh physicality and turbulent emotions of the lives described. Why this thread made me think of it, I can't imagine. | ||
| Rhysaurus (Rhysaurus) Username: Rhysaurus Registered: 01-2010 Posted From: 212.219.233.223 |
You can indeed take this opportunity, Joel. Oh, wait, you already did! | ||
| Skip (Wolfnoma) Username: Wolfnoma Registered: 07-2010 Posted From: 216.54.20.98 |
I would'nt even know where to begin with coming up for a dream for my life. I just seem to work. Wait, I have a dream of being out of debt in America. (When I start dreaming I DREAM BIG!) | ||
| Des (Des) Username: Des Registered: 09-2010 Posted From: 86.169.221.108 |
No, I haven't watched them, Rhys. But maybe I should. I wonder which of the Seneca and Nietzsche approaches to aircraft design is more akin to the Coanda Effect? | ||
| Hubert (Hubert) Username: Hubert Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 78.22.237.21 |
Hey, I want to be rich and marry Lady Gaga. How's about that for a dream? | ||
| Craig (Craig) Username: Craig Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 99.126.164.88 |
I've always liked Seneca's quote: "Religion is regarded by the common people as true, by the wise as false, and by the rulers as useful." How relevant today! Speaking of Genesis: I've been thinking about the "tower of Babel" little bit there. It's significant that God (gods? he seems to be talking to himself or someone else) comes down and, rather than actually destroy the tower and city they are building (He doesn't, though it's often assumed in later portrayals that He does), or destroy the people building it... rather, He frustrates their languages so they can't understand each other, and must lay off the building of the tower and city.... There's something Freudian/psychoanalytical/psychological, in that. Unlearning the language of madness and hive-building, that can go on in our own heads. It's not enough to stop doing something, or start doing something else... no, you must compltely learn how not to understand your own mad thoughts. It seemed like I was going somewhere with this... nah, it didn't seem like, actually.... | ||
| Tony (Tony) Username: Tony Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 81.155.202.203 |
Des - did you look at the stuff on aliens I posted on the other thread? The lockheed chap saying there is only one moment and place and that's all, that aliens travel vie something like ESP. The chap I researched who did remote viewing said the precise same thing, and he used to work for the US military. He said when you remote view you aren't going anywhere because technically you're there already. This stuff gives me goosebumps. I believe in fate. What happens happens. | ||
| Tony (Tony) Username: Tony Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 81.155.202.203 |
Craig - I think we're in the tower of Babel already. | ||
| Tony (Tony) Username: Tony Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 81.155.202.203 |
God, was I smoking something last night or what?  | ||
| Stevie Walsh (Stephenw) Username: Stephenw Registered: 03-2009 Posted From: 194.32.31.1 |
Dreams are dangerous things if taken too seriously, particularly those involving material gain and/or power, success or fame. My overriding desire in life is to be happy and to love someone, and to be loved in return and make someone else happy by the mere fact of my existence. It's a simple strategy for getting the best out of life, and one that demands boundless enthusiasm and an optimistic disposition, but, despite sounding like a load of cornball nonsense, it actually does work. If you can crack the "glass half full" mantra and always concentrate on the silver lining, in even the darkest of situations, then you will create your own good luck - or karma - and everything else will fall into place. | ||
| Gary Fry (Gary_fry) Username: Gary_fry Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 86.31.227.164 |
Everything's always sunny for me. I'm always happy. Indeed, I drink all day to celebrate this fact. | ||
| Craig (Craig) Username: Craig Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 99.126.164.88 |
Okay, Stevie, I'm willing to give it a try.... So gimme a mantra! (btw, curious - do you practice TM?) | ||
| Weber (Weber_gregston) Username: Weber_gregston Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 194.176.105.55 |
I don't know about Stevie but I practice TM when I go to the dentist. Instead of the anaesthetic I chant until I'm in a trance-like state. In this way I can transcend dental medication... Mwa ha ha ha I'll get me coat | ||
| Hubert (Hubert) Username: Hubert Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 78.22.237.21 |
In sum, it helps if you sing  | ||
| Frank (Frank) Username: Frank Registered: 09-2008 Posted From: 85.222.86.21 |
Steve - I'm with you, pal. At the end of the day, achievements or no achievements, what matters is to share a happy life with the person you love. Everything else is the icing on the cake. I've never been happier, and though my own personal goals in writing have far exceeded my goals as a young man, they pale into insignificance beside my life with Ewa. When we go, when it's time, better to go having loved and been loved. | ||
| Gary Fry (Gary_fry) Username: Gary_fry Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 86.31.227.164 |
This thread has become a US sitcom. | ||
| Rhysaurus (Rhysaurus) Username: Rhysaurus Registered: 01-2010 Posted From: 212.219.233.223 |
My dream is to be "icing on the cake". I say this because I'm always being told that everything else is just icing on the cake! I want to be everything else! Imagine that! EVERYTHING ELSE! Only joking. My real dream is to have my dream unfulfilled... Discuss. | ||
| Frank (Frank) Username: Frank Registered: 09-2008 Posted From: 85.222.86.21 |
Prof - no, it's not. It's honesty. Simple and straight. Don't resort to the typical English sentiment of being embarrassed by somebody being unabashedly happy. You bloody Scrooge of goodwill Not everything needs be a witty retort planned to the point of withering cynicism (; | ||
| Gary Fry (Gary_fry) Username: Gary_fry Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 86.31.227.164 |
That's not why I'm embarrassed, believe me. | ||
| Rhysaurus (Rhysaurus) Username: Rhysaurus Registered: 01-2010 Posted From: 212.219.233.223 |
Frank: you don't really expect people to take off their "irony armour" do you? We're still living in a postmodernist age, rightly or wrongly. I've even seen people being ironic about irony. It's the perfect armour! I love my irony armour! I polish it every morning before breakfast. | ||
| Frank (Frank) Username: Frank Registered: 09-2008 Posted From: 85.222.86.21 |
Prof - sorry, mate, but I don't follow. And I'm not being contentious. Honestly. Rhys - I've often thought we British need to sometimes loosen up on the subject of feelings. I mean, I don't want big 'happy circles' of people hugging each other to tears, but sometimes we deserve our monikers of 'the irrefutably cold.' I like irony, love it, but it can make a person a bit weary when everybody's a professional cynic. Not that that's aimed at Prof. I'm speaking in general terms. | ||
| Gary Fry (Gary_fry) Username: Gary_fry Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 86.31.227.164 |
I'm a professional cynic, but my heart's not in it. I'm paying the price for living life at the limit. Caught in the century's anxiety. | ||
| Frank (Frank) Username: Frank Registered: 09-2008 Posted From: 85.222.86.21 |
Like many of us, Prof. | ||
| Rhysaurus (Rhysaurus) Username: Rhysaurus Registered: 01-2010 Posted From: 212.219.233.223 |
I'm an amateur cynic. A gentleman, not a player. | ||
| Zed (Gary_mc) Username: Gary_mc Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 195.166.117.210 |
'Irony armour'...that's genius. Frank, I've recently become a relatively positive person after spending 41 years as a cynical bastard. This worries me greatly. It must mean that someone is going to die. | ||
| Gary Fry (Gary_fry) Username: Gary_fry Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 86.31.227.164 |
I live in a very big house in the country, too. | ||
| Craig (Craig) Username: Craig Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 99.126.164.88 |
Yeah, loving someone and having someone love you back... gee, really takes some effort to squeeze happiness out of THAT, don't it!... By the way, the gruel is cold and miserable today. And I'm all out of coal.  | ||
| Weber (Weber_gregston) Username: Weber_gregston Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 194.176.105.55 |
I've got morning glory but that's a different story. | ||
| Weber (Weber_gregston) Username: Weber_gregston Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 194.176.105.55 |
Everything's going jack-o-nory. Touched by my own mortality | ||
| Frank (Frank) Username: Frank Registered: 09-2008 Posted From: 82.210.134.81 |
Craig - but you dear sir, are the archetypal cynic. I think it must be the current fashion in your line of business.(: I mean, let's be honest, mate, you're like death, whenever you enter the room, flowers wilt, and people start weeping blood. Zed - I was also a cynic, and still am to some respects, but I get where you're coming from. I expect an asteroid to hit anytime soon (: | ||
| Gary Fry (Gary_fry) Username: Gary_fry Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 86.31.227.164 |
He's regular Joe Gillis, is Craig. | ||
| Carolinec (Carolinec) Username: Carolinec Registered: 06-2009 Posted From: 92.232.199.129 |
Well, I'm just a big ol' softie - I love to see all you young fellas falling in love and going all soppy and sentimental on us! | ||
| Gary Fry (Gary_fry) Username: Gary_fry Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 86.31.227.164 |
Yeah, all that stuff is a pretty good lead up to anal sex. | ||
| Craig (Craig) Username: Craig Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 99.126.164.88 |
Ah, Gary. The Oscar Wilde of the 21st Century. Frank, even Death mumbles something about having to be somewhere else, quickly downs his drink, and shuffles off, when I enter a room.... | ||
| Stevie Walsh (Stephenw) Username: Stephenw Registered: 03-2009 Posted From: 194.32.31.1 |
Yes, Craig, I am a great advocate of the therapeutic properties of tantric masturbation. Try chanting "JI-YAH, JI-YAH, JI-YAH" over and over again. | ||
| Craig (Craig) Username: Craig Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 99.126.164.88 |
Okay, here goes.... It's not working. Everything's completely the same. What am I doing wrong? | ||
| Stevie Walsh (Stephenw) Username: Stephenw Registered: 03-2009 Posted From: 194.32.31.1 |
Watch Episode 26 of 'Curb Your Enthusiasm' and then try it again... | ||
| Craig (Craig) Username: Craig Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 99.126.164.88 |
Ha! Yes, I remember that one now.... |