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I’ve had the same supper for 10 years

theguardian.com

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Re: I’ve had the same supper for 10 years

#431

Post by PicassoCTs »

renewiltord wrote: post #344
M277 wrote: post #314

Earlier quoted context omitted.

People are different, with different desires, personalities, mentalities, ..... Isn't it only natural then that 'happiness' would be different from one person to another? Why speak low about him? You're content with your life, and he is content with his... it really is that simple. You can't go up to an artist and say, "Hey, your painting is crap, you should change x, y, z," because it is the artist's painting , not…

These threads are always so entertaining. Someone will make up this pastoral romance while implying that the city life is somehow lacking. Then someone will do the opposite and the wars will begin. Very entertaining. For my part, I enjoy modal editors so I think vim is better than emacs and I like the GPL over BSD.

I prefer . The other tribe is wrong sick and cease to be. :D

Re: I’ve had the same supper for 10 years

#433

Post by PicassoCTs »

paganel wrote: post #406
usgroup wrote: post #286

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I appreciate the romance, but those of us who have children leave behind much more than stone walls we built in our 20s. He’s a 72 year old Batchelor who’s once stepped foot outside a Welsh valley. If happiness is a lobotomy then credit to us who don’t choose it.

My peasant grandmother very rarely set foot outside her village’s mountain valley. When my grandfather got to held an important political party position she had to make do with living ~20 km down the valley in the area’s only town (that’s where my dad was born), but as soon as the chance arose to get back to her village she immediately took it (and I presume she also convinced my grandfather to take it, he became the…

They are not rich, but they do have way less stress then the city dwellers. And if stress is to be considered the one thing you do not like, they spend way less time in situations they do dislike.

Unless they go into debt. Then the bank owns them and the farm, and the debt turns into stress and you have the city experience, out in the great outdoors.

Re: I’ve had the same supper for 10 years

#434

Post by noir_lord »

irjustin wrote: post #248

Happiness - he's found it. Sure, he's an extreme and very few want to emulate it because there's a mild element of delusion. But, he's found the thing so many of us work our entire lives for only to never find. Part of life is letting happiness find you, part of life is finding happiness, and part of life is pushing away things to find happiness in what you have. I say, well done.

Happiness is a terrible word because there are different kinds.

I think contentment is closer to what he's found, his world makes sense in his context and is comfortable and familiar.

Happiness is what you want when you are young, contentment is what you get if you are lucky later.

I think that is how it should be, it's a good progression since too much contentment when you are young would have made me less driven and been less driven wouldn't have helped me reach a point of contentment in my late 30's.

I have a partner who loves me and I her in return, a stable job I enjoy, money in the bank and time and money for my hobbies - it's not euphoric happiness but that never lasts, contentment can.

Re: I’ve had the same supper for 10 years

#435

Post by mrphoebs »

krimbus wrote: post #420
mrphoebs wrote: post #357

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Children as your legacy are no less consequential or meaningful than this man's stone walls. In the end you are grasping for empty meaning and purpose in the same way the farmer is, your children will perish, their children will perish, you will be forgotten and so will they like the rest of human existence. Our lives have no larger purpose or meaning beyond what ever we pretend gives meaning to your life, like child…

Yet, our very existence is a consequence of reproduction, even if we may have forgotten our ancestors. The only true delusion of grandeur is thinking that dwindling others' experiences against the vastness of the universe is enlightenment: If we don't experience our existence in geological/cosmic time scales, why waste time believing we are mere blips?

I'm not dwindling others experiences against the vastness of the universe. I'm merely pointing out the absurdity of the parent comment that somehow elevates the meaningfulness of having kids over building a stone wall. My position is neither is any less or more meaningful beyond individual experience.

Re: I’ve had the same supper for 10 years

#436

Post by livinginfear »

CalRobert wrote: post #427
usgroup wrote: post #286

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I appreciate the romance, but those of us who have children leave behind much more than stone walls we built in our 20s. He’s a 72 year old Batchelor who’s once stepped foot outside a Welsh valley. If happiness is a lobotomy then credit to us who don’t choose it.

In enough generations, not one atom of your descendent's DNA will be specifically yours. The impact of your parenting will be diluted. The time spent on parenting shuts off an infinity of other options. I adore my children but the ways we enrich our culture and those around us matters just as much as our kids. And besides, why should a well-lived life look the same for him as for others?

> ...not one atom of your descendent's DNA will be specifically yours.

Ignoring the fact that you are probably not correct scientifically speaking, I think that the constitution of your descendants is figuratively, symbolically, if not scientifically, yours (please pardon my English). It's yours because you played an entirely crucial role in creating this lineage. Whatever path it took after your role in it, that path was shaped by your involvement. You don't have to believe in the spiritual importance of lineage to acknowledge that your actions, and simply being, have some important, significant impact upon it. I find this outlook a bit too modern and nihilistic for me.

Re: I’ve had the same supper for 10 years

#437

Post by qwertox »

To me this sounds a lot like that he's built himself a solid foundation in evading critical thinking about himself, possibly to avoid a more serious psychological harm which he thinks he may face if he looks at the bigger picture.

He compares himself to the animals: "They never ask for anything different for supper".

> "People might think I’m not experiencing new things, but I think the secret to a good life is to enjoy your work. I could never stay indoors and watch TV. I hear London is a place best avoided. I think living in a city would be terrible"

As a bachelor, how will he know what it is like to look into the eyes of a loved with whom you form a new family? Without watching TV, how will he know that movies like "Up" (Pixar 2009) or series like "Breaking Bad" are well worth spending their time, without incurring a dramatic time penalty in your life? Take the TV out to the porch, if staying inside is such a pain. How can he be sure that a visit to the British Museum in London isn't worth the effort, or time, or whatever he thinks that speaks against it? Will he find laughing people in the cafes of the city?

All of this feels like a "too afraid to discover" that he disguises it as a "secret to a good life". Not a happy life, but a good life. His sheeps make him happy. Like his spouse or kids could make him happy, or a trip to the city or watching 40 minutes of TV once a week. Or a delicious steak. Or riding a bike on a trail, if he weren't so old by now.

I wonder if the Welsh radio station has told him about the current dilemmas which AI is confronting us with, or if he thought about where and under which circumstances all this gear he owns to exercise his role of a farmer has been developed and produced and if his lifestyle, if applied to everyone, would have made it possible for this gear to exist.

It's OK if he decides to eat the same supper every day, if he prefers not to live with people, but to me this feels more like an elaborate thinking system designed to avoid something which would cause him pain, which doesn't cause pain to others.

Sure there is a lot to criticize about our modern life, and many people aren't happy living in the city and with their day to day jobs, or with their family situation, but he has built himself a very tall wall in order to be shielded from him being possibly affected by these problems and calls it a good life. Not much of a difference to a suburban man who tolerates his job, hates his kids, but has the biggest amount of fun when he jumps into his glider on the weekends, watches his favorite TV series at the end of the day and loves to go jogging every day for an hour. Or have a beer with a friend.

At least his sheep are among themselves, maybe some of them enjoy spending their time together and are glad to get anything to eat at all. But how would he know, if he's just happy pretending to be a fellow sheep and calls it a day.

Then again, there are comments like the one from telesilla.

Re: I’ve had the same supper for 10 years

#438

Post by mrphoebs »

tacitusarc wrote: post #390
mrphoebs wrote: post #357

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Children as your legacy are no less consequential or meaningful than this man's stone walls. In the end you are grasping for empty meaning and purpose in the same way the farmer is, your children will perish, their children will perish, you will be forgotten and so will they like the rest of human existence. Our lives have no larger purpose or meaning beyond what ever we pretend gives meaning to your life, like child…

What if you're wrong?

I don't know what specifically you are referring to but, the sun is going to be a red giant in 4.5 billion years, earth cannot sustain life. Deep into the future, all the stars will eventually burn out and there will be no more new ones born. The night sky will be dark. The only radiation emitted will be black holes slowly evaporating on a time scale so huge we can't even meaningfully comprehend it. There is no energy to sustain life. Then there is the heat death of the universe to look forward to.

Humans might survive past earth, but oblivion will come for us all the same. We just get to play around in our little imagined worlds of purpose and meaning a little longer all to no avail beyond living one's life.

And that's all any of us can really do, chose how to face existence knowing there is no grand scheme in which each of us is some how important or matters. Choosing to live is equally as valid as choosing not to. We are evolutionarily engineered thinking emotional machines where certain states make us feel good(love, friendship, self actualisation food...., accomplishment) and certain states make us feel bad (sickness, loss, pain...)

All we can do is live a life we are happy(good state) with, be it building stone walls that last or having kids and raising them.

Re: I’ve had the same supper for 10 years

#439

Post by flr03 »

FartyMcFarter wrote: post #393

> I hear London is a place best avoided. I think living in a city would be terrible – people living on top of one another in great tower blocks. I could never do it. He should visit - most people in London don't live in tower blocks, and there's lots of nature around. There are wild deer in Richmond Park, and Hampstead Heath is almost indistinguishable from any other forest (and quite close to the very center of Lond…

Coming from the "actual" country side, Richmond Park and Hampstead Heath feel like parody of nature for me. Don't get me wrong I like to go cycling and see the deers in Richmond but I've never had a feeling of being really in the nature. Too many people, too many cars around. Hampstead Heath is bigger I've been a couple of time only, but I remember how poor the soil was at places because of how many people walk around.

Re: I’ve had the same supper for 10 years

#440

Post by bluepizza »

x3iv130f wrote: post #414
randompwd wrote: post #410

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> One day, the grouse was seen perching atop the family house. When I told this to my grandmother, she went silent at first, and then she told me that it means someone will die in the family. This was of course terrifying news to me. But it also turned out to become true, because my grandfather also died that year. Do you actually believe the grouse perching on house was foreshadowing??

Could be a gentle way for an elder to let their grandchild know that they are passing soon. Does the Grouse know? Probably not. The grandmother would though.

That's a very nice way of seeing things. Thanks for that.
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