My dead dad’s journal
seanblanda.com
My dead dad’s journal
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Re: My dead dad’s journal
#2This article by Sean Blanda made me tear up a little. It's a beautiful and emotional read.
Re: My dead dad’s journal
#3> An addict who was self-aware, and still couldn’t pull himself out from the abyss.
My experience with addicts is that they are often self aware. Their appearance and circumstance might suggest otherwise. It's very easy to relegate these people to some category of cognitive failure.
Unfortunately it seems to me that addiction tends to defeat good cognition, awareness, intention, all the rest of the apparent defences – it isn't a disease of stupidity or inferiority.
> It was Jekyll talking to Hyde. Bruce Banner talking to the Hulk. And, in honor of my dad I feel I must also include: It’s Data talking to Lore.
I love it.
That was a nice read. I like to be reminded of how messy life can be and at the same time how close death is. We're all on borrowed time. Reading about dads struggling from the perspective of their children is also a uniquely motivating thing. I hope my kids don't end up reading through my journals trying to get to know me after losing me unexpectedly.
Re: My dead dad’s journal
#4What a beautiful memoir, I'm glad the journal could provide the author such closure.
Re: My dead dad’s journal
#5> An addict who was self-aware, and still couldn’t pull himself out from the abyss. My experience with addicts is that they are often self aware. Their appearance and circumstance might suggest otherwise. It's very easy to relegate these people to some category of cognitive failure. Unfortunately it seems to me that addiction tends to defeat good cognition, awareness, intention, all the rest of the apparent defences…
> Unfortunately it seems to me that addiction tends to defeat good cognition, awareness, intention, all the rest of the apparent defences – it isn't a disease of stupidity or inferiority.
Sadly this is true for so many things -- depression, ADHD, extreme anxiety. And yet for the most part, society does not understand. Instead, people aren't trying hard enough, or they're not letting things make them happy, or they're lazy, or are procrastinating.
If only more people realized that no amount of awareness or intelligence can overcome some of these issues without help from others -- be it friends, family, medical professionals, or strangers -- perhaps the world would be a better place.
Re: My dead dad’s journal
#6I do something similar to this for my kids, they each have an email address which I send some pictures and/or message to every day. On my passing they will get the details to access the accounts.
I thought it was important to leave them something that they can reflect on, memories, thoughts, reasons, and an understanding of me in some ways and how they impacted on my life.
Re: My dead dad’s journal
#7I do something similar to this for my kids, they each have an email address which I send some pictures and/or message to every day. On my passing they will get the details to access the accounts. I thought it was important to leave them something that they can reflect on, memories, thoughts, reasons, and an understanding of me in some ways and how they impacted on my life.
Not sure what your system is, but if you have one, make sure your email provider isn't the kind that deletes addresses if no one has logged in in a year or two.
Re: My dead dad’s journal
#8I do something similar to this for my kids, they each have an email address which I send some pictures and/or message to every day. On my passing they will get the details to access the accounts. I thought it was important to leave them something that they can reflect on, memories, thoughts, reasons, and an understanding of me in some ways and how they impacted on my life.
Not sure what your system is, but if you have one, make sure your email provider isn't the kind that deletes addresses if no one has logged in in a year or two.
Yeah, I've already lost so much stuff due to this happening to a couple email accounts over the years. Or, I mean, entire services just shut down (Geocities, Yahoo Groups, etc.)
Re: My dead dad’s journal
#9> An addict who was self-aware, and still couldn’t pull himself out from the abyss. My experience with addicts is that they are often self aware. Their appearance and circumstance might suggest otherwise. It's very easy to relegate these people to some category of cognitive failure. Unfortunately it seems to me that addiction tends to defeat good cognition, awareness, intention, all the rest of the apparent defences…
> Unfortunately it seems to me that addiction tends to defeat good cognition, awareness, intention, all the rest of the apparent defences – it isn't a disease of stupidity or inferiority. Sadly this is true for so many things -- depression, ADHD, extreme anxiety. And yet for the most part, society does not understand. Instead, people aren't trying hard enough, or they're not letting things make them happy, or they're…
This is true for like everything. Watch people talk about gun control or 2fa or any topic of discourse. Everyone thinks the other side is dumb and can’t see why the other side believes the way they do no matter what.
It’s a sign of lack of experience, but you also can’t experience even 1% of everything so are you just need to learn that when a lot of people are doing something that doesn’t make sense to you and it makes you think they’re dumb, it just means that you just don’t have the tools to figure out why yet. Of course, it also doesn’t necessarily mean that they’re right either.
Re: My dead dad’s journal
#10I do something similar to this for my kids, they each have an email address which I send some pictures and/or message to every day. On my passing they will get the details to access the accounts. I thought it was important to leave them something that they can reflect on, memories, thoughts, reasons, and an understanding of me in some ways and how they impacted on my life.
Not sure what your system is, but if you have one, make sure your email provider isn't the kind that deletes addresses if no one has logged in in a year or two.
Thanks, good tip. I am using gmail and occasionally log into the accounts to ensure the emails are being received, and there are not problems with the account.