Money, it turned out, was exactly like sex, you thought of nothing else if you didn’t have it and thought of other things if you did.
I’m just waiting, waiting for the man
Anonymous asked:
askfam answered:
becoming content is a lot like managing hunger. when you’re hungry it can go in a few different directions. you can:
a) starve yourself
b) eat until your stomach can’t handle anymore
c) use something to distract your hunger
d) eat something that will do just enough for your body to sustain itself
the last part is hard cuz it’s not sexy, it’s usually not memorable, it’s just enough to get to the next meal. content is so hard because it’s being ok with being ok, and as humans we’re always searching for more.
so to answer your question, i don’t know.
But the one thing people tend to realize at moments like this is that they wasted a lot of time when life was normal. And it’s not just that they spent too much time working or compulsively checking email, it’s that they cared about the wrong things. They regret what they cared about. Their attention was bound up in petty concerns year after year when life was normal. And this is a paradox of course because we all know this epiphany is coming. I mean, don’t you know this is coming? Don’t you know there’s going to come a day when you’ll be sick or someone close to you will die and you’ll look back at the kinds of things that captured your attention and you’ll think, “What was I doing?”
You know this, and yet if you’re like most people, you’ll spend your time in life tacitly presuming you’ll live forever. It’s like watching a bad movie for the fourth time or bickering with your spouse. I mean this, these things only make sense in light of eternity. There better be a heaven if we’re going to waste our time like that. There are ways to really live in the present moment. What’s the alternative?
It is always now. However much you feel you may need to plan for the future, to anticipate it, to mitigate the risks, the reality of your life is now. This may sound trite, but it’s the truth.
I quickly realized that friendships without tomorrows, and the little anguishes of parting, were part of the pleasures of traveling. I resolutely avoided bores, saw only those who amused me. We spent afternoons taking long walks, nights drinking and talking, and then we would leave each other, never to meet again, and there were no regrets. How simple life was. No regrets, no obligations, my acts and gestures counted for nothing, no one asked my advice, and I knew no other rule but my whims.
What I regret most in my life are failures of kindness. Those moments when another human being was there, in front of me, suffering, and I responded…sensibly. Reservedly. Mildly.
Honest question here, but why has “ignore it” instead of “stand up for yourself” become the norm?
The future presented by the internet is the mass amateurization of publishing and a switch from ‘Why publish this?’ to ‘Why not?
dannysacks
liluglylilfool
i don’t know if elephants understand politics but i Highly doubt they would be republicans
