Open Thread - Friday, June 15, 2018
Like those in the valley behind us, most people stand in sight of the spiritual mountains all their lives and never enter them, being content to listen to others who have been there and thus avoid the hardships.
- Robert M. Pirsig -
I'm funkin' back from slaying The Dragon. Riders are killed on The Tail of the Dragon, almost every year. It is not the road that does them in. It’s a great motorcycle road with more than 300 curves in 11 miles. The Tail of the Dragon attracts squids and posers. It was a fun little ride, but not any more challenging than the back roads of West Virginia, the mountain roads of Colorado, nor commuting in Pittsburgh.
During the employment years I was a controls engineer, making me predisposed to risk analysis and safety. Consequently, my approach is more pilot, than biker. I was MSF trained, ride a well maintained machine, have ridden a couple hundred thousand miles and always wear PPE. During the ride in motorcycle Mecca, I saw too many riders who were flippant and frivolous. Just funkin' sayin'.
The multi-day motorcycle ride gave me a chance to think. I think, I am searching for something. I do not know what it is, nor how to recognize it. I have a hole in my soul. An emptiness that can not be placated.
I have willed myself to keep busy. I plan distractions, catch a buzz, take care of the administrative stuff, work out and go thrill seeking, but it is all just ointment on the wound. Aw, funk.
I miss Sue, terribly. I try to keep my chin up, but I am not complete without her. A year and a quarter after her death, I still think about her everyday. I would give anything to hold her again.
Thrill seeking helps me feel alive. There is no alterative except to keep moving onward and upward. Motorcycling twisting mountain roads is an endorphin rush.
In the mean time, I will maintain the contented older guy charade.
As a sage old DFH, I prescribe a Duck ride, and resulting endorphin rush to ward off the blues.
Have a great weekend! The thread is OPEN.
To the funkin' garage!
Comments
Good morning, Tim ~~~
I think you might be looking for peace, which is always elusive. Life is timing - peace will come in its own time. We think we have control, but the universe is in charge, so just keep on keeping on.
Sue will always be with you, just not in physical form. My Tom has been gone 31 years. Although I’ve been remarried for 24 years, he’s still with me.
It’s never easy, the suffering. It just is what it is for us to endure. Know you are supported.
Have a beautiful day and weekend, folks!
"The “jumpers” reminded us that one day we will all face only one choice and that is how we will die, not how we will live." Chris Hedges on 9/11
Yes
Some combination of positive vibrations.
The individual has always had to struggle to keep from being overwhelmed by the tribe. If you try it, you will be lonely often, and sometimes frightened. But no price is too high to pay for the privilege of owning yourself. - Friedrich Nietzsche -
Hey Tim and c99
Glad your ride went well. Here's hoping you can find a little joy today and this weekend.
[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b6t4Zs5Yq_k]
“Until justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.”
Great quote, Lookout.
It helps me, too.
"The “jumpers” reminded us that one day we will all face only one choice and that is how we will die, not how we will live." Chris Hedges on 9/11
Nailed it
The individual has always had to struggle to keep from being overwhelmed by the tribe. If you try it, you will be lonely often, and sometimes frightened. But no price is too high to pay for the privilege of owning yourself. - Friedrich Nietzsche -
Thanks
We had it really good. Together for forty years, friends and lovers that had spent two thirds of our lives together. We lived life as fully as possible. I suppose a big part of the grieving is not having an accomplice.
The individual has always had to struggle to keep from being overwhelmed by the tribe. If you try it, you will be lonely often, and sometimes frightened. But no price is too high to pay for the privilege of owning yourself. - Friedrich Nietzsche -
It takes time
Doing things that you enjoy truly helps recovery.
“Not having an accomplice”
speaks volumes.
"The “jumpers” reminded us that one day we will all face only one choice and that is how we will die, not how we will live." Chris Hedges on 9/11
Elizabeth Kubler-Ross is my definition of a saint.
What she accomplished dealing with dying and death is beyond incredible. You will adapt to Sue's loss with time. That process has already started.
Rec'd!!
Inner and Outer Space: the Final Frontiers.
The first quote from Kubler Ross
@NCTim
is one that is the most true, imo.
My sister lost her husband now 22 years ago, then she lost her only daughter four years ago. She never got over both deaths. She had a very loving relationship to her husband and her daughter. When her daughter died after long suffering through cancer, she stopped wanting to live an active life. I don't think she is whole again, but she sleep-walks slow motion through her daily routines, which isn't that much anymore.
And she will never be the same.
So, Kubler Ross is very much to the point.
I would be grateful for the years you had with your wife, NCTim. It was a gift. And you cherish it every day.
Good luck finding what you are searching. I am sure one day you know what it is.
Thanks for your loyalty to this site and your friends.
I attended the ribbon cutting ceremony at the Mariposa Grove
Link to press release
Only about a year behind schedule they completed the $40 Million project to restore habitat for the big trees. I was able to hike around for a couple of hours yesterday. Going back to the Mariposa Grove today for a much longer hike. Then back to upstate NY on a red-eye out of SFO tonight.
Hola, Tim. I got nuthin'. Nonetheless I'd suggest actively
looking out at life and actively trying to appreciate and enjoy it. In time you may come to actually do so. For one example, I notice that if I stop and home in on the dimensionality, the depth and 3-D ness of my person and surroundings, I then realize that I largely wander around on automatic, in a very flat world, which becomes far more interesting and pleasant in participatory 3-D.
That, in its essence, is fascism--ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or by any other controlling private power. -- Franklin D. Roosevelt --
I think I've hit the point...
where I can't watch MSM news any more. Literally every word that comes out of their mouths is calculated to try to get me to buy into the rotten and decrepit system that they're desperately trying to shove a few load bearing beams under.
The tipping point was the breathless coverage of Hillary's tweet yesterday, and the incredibly "Witty" response of complaining that people are still complaining about the Emails.
Yeah, great, I get it. It's OLD NEWS and we need to stop paying attention, and should laugh at anybody who brings up the DNC's rigging... oh wait, except we SHOULDN'T because it's the pretext for the war with Russia.
Propaganda has always had to juggle narratives, but this is just pathetic. At least wait a goddamn news cycle.
[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yVg28azacaM]
I do not pretend I know what I do not know.
Bruce Cockburn, Canadian national treasure
Bruce Cockburn - "If I Had A Rocket Launcher" - 02/16/2018
"If I Had A Ukelele"
--- you forgot Poland
Cannon fodder for nuclear war: What the US division deployed to Poland will become
simple answer
do not deploy