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Why go out?

brickmag.com

51–60 of 113 posts

Re: Why go out?

#51
I don't wholly agree with the contents of the essay, but that was so delightfully well written!

We have evolved to be social being. Being independent and content with yourself is a good thing, but total isolation can have disastrous effects on the human psyche (Look-up reports of POWs who were kept in isolation for extended periods of time).

Re: Why go out?

#52

I first simply want to address the smoking bit. _Something_ about smoking is habitual, or rather, not to see that a drug addiction could instantiate or engender a habit which itself re-enforces the addiction, might be the main problematic of 'quitting advice.' Rather, ignoring that cigarettes prompt a way of life only suggests to me that said advice treats an idealized person, or biological system, a model. We are no…

Slavery isn't some inevitable feature of, trade, or political systems, that one chooses or does not.

I don't know if it's inevitable, but it's only been for the last couple of hundred years of human history that it was not very commonplace.

Re: Why go out?

#53

I don't wholly agree with the contents of the essay, but that was so delightfully well written! We have evolved to be social being. Being independent and content with yourself is a good thing, but total isolation can have disastrous effects on the human psyche (Look-up reports of POWs who were kept in isolation for extended periods of time).

Prisoners are not in isolation by choice. It's uncommon, quite rare even, but I don't think you can deny that there are a few people who find happiness in solitude.

Re: Why go out?

#54
On a Night of Snow

  Cat, if you go outdoors you must walk in the snow.
  You will come back with little white shoes on your feet,
  Little white slippers of snow that have heels of sleet.
  Stay by the fire, my Cat. Lie still, do not go.
  See how the flames are leaping and hissing low,
  I will bring you a saucer of milk like a Marguerite,
  So white and smooth, so spherical and sweet--
  Stay with me, Cat. Outdoors the wild winds blow.
 
  Outdoors the wild winds blow, Mistress, and dark is the night.
  Strange voices cry in the trees, intoning strange lore;
  And more than cats move, lit by our eyes' green light,
  On silent feet where the meadow grasses hang hoar--
  Mistress, there are portentas abroad of magic and might,
  And things that are yet to be done. Open the door!

Re: Why go out?

#55
The author sounds like she suffers from crippling anxiety and possibly depression, and I am incredibly empathetic because I have lived through similar things. I can understand from personal experience how a person could come to the conclusions she does.

But I hope that she manages to find the solution that frees her of this burden. Whether it's meds, lifestyle changes, or moving to a place that gets more sun, I want to believe that there is a solution out there for her. For me it was quitting drinking -- I never had a drinking problem in the traditional sense, but what I didn't realize was that it was making me emotionally very unstable.

It's hell being the kind of person who spends weeks reacting to one mean comment. It is the worst thing ever. But living a life that's free of that is the best thing ever. It's worth doing whatever it takes to find out how to achieve it.

Re: Why go out?

#56
I am surprised at how often neurotic artists and writers seem to think others are like them. It's perfectly fine to feel the way this writer does, but does she realize it is unusual? Or does she assume others feel the same way but are just faking it? Lives of quiet desperation, etc?

Re: Why go out?

#57

The author sounds like she suffers from crippling anxiety and possibly depression, and I am incredibly empathetic because I have lived through similar things. I can understand from personal experience how a person could come to the conclusions she does. But I hope that she manages to find the solution that frees her of this burden. Whether it's meds, lifestyle changes, or moving to a place that gets more sun, I want…

You might be projecting the putative "crippling anxiety" into her words. I think she was trying to write something worth reading, and so naturally dramatized her story a bit. I thought it was well-written, displaying a healthy level of self-observation and satisfying developmental progress for the length of the piece.

Re: Why go out?

#58
post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As an atheist, I dislike such "spiritual bents" being forced into the concept. In no way does Atheism entail a belief* in evolution. It is merely a lack of belief in any god(s). Also, your argument implies that every atheist views sex-change operation as necessarily bad, since they're a fundamental modification to "the way you're bred". This is certainly not true. I find your argument uncompelling. *Not to be confuse…

While the dictionary doesn't define atheism as holding a belief in evolution, I would suspect there is an extremely high correlation between them. It's always the religious fundamentalists that reject evolution because anyone with any kind of scientific mind would accept the mountains of evidence. If one rejects the spiritual or mythological explanation for things being the way they are, it's hard to come up with ano…

If it wasn't God who created the Universe than who did? It created itself somewhere? That's where any rational mind should stop shouldn't it?

We perceive the things in some way, which doesn't mean it is the right way or the only way.

Re: Why go out?

#59
I don't think there's any desperation in her voice at all. She sounds genuinely bored with something she has plenty of - and no trouble getting - other people.

To be honest she comes across as a rich person complaining about the shallowness of people seeking money.

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