The Meaning of Life
I have a lot of things to be thankful for. I'm not terribly bad looking, my wife is gorgeous, and I have two kids that amaze me daily by how they approach their lives and the love they inspire within me. My dogs are pretty cool, too. Once upon a time I was successful at my work. I've been paid to jump out of airplanes, been an organizer and participant in numerous world records, and coached and taught numerous others. Once there were some people who considered me reasonably intelligent.
Sometimes it's good to remind ourselves of some good things that are personal in nature, that speak to your self-image. There are just too many damned people that will negatively influence your life without giving it a thought. It's just what people do. Not all, of course, just some. Enough, though, that the God of Statistics has put me into contact with far too many.
The good thing about the Blogosphere (no, it's not that hideous name) is that any idiot with access to a computer can write one. Such as me. I don't know what the hell I'm talking about at least 99% of the time. I didn't start this thing because I thought I had anything to say that any one ought to want to listen to. But then I realized that this is not the best attitude for an aspiring writer to take so I jumped in.
It quickly became something of a drill for me, "writing practice" as it were. The loose goal was simply to write a coherent thought in a style that was readable, fairly concise, and lucid. A strong opinion would be good, too, because really, that's the kind of person I am.
These entries are typically long, longer than I thought they'd be. I'm not sure if I just can't get to the point or if it comes out of the kind of voice I'm trying to write in. It doesn't help that I typically write these things while homeschooling my daughter. Six or seven interruptions per minute seems about the norm and I just can't maintain enough focus to jump back and forth without losing coherence.
Even now, I was going to write about flaky people and how I try to deflect their impact on my life by erasing them from my thoughts as much as possible. But I allowed my opening to grow, and then elongate, and now my internal blog clock is ringing so I have to wrap it up. Dammit, I'm trying...
My wife thinks I hold things against people; grudges, or something like that. Really, I don't, but she doesn't buy it. When I finally shut the door on my neighbor, he had just come literally screaming out of his house, wearing nothing but a pair of gym shorts, going off on me about the appliance man who committed the mortal sin of backing down my driveway. Since the beginning of my driveway overlaps with a portion of his, he felt that the appliance man should have turned around on my driveway than driven straight out without having to go twice over a buried culvert.
The culvert is a pipe that goes beneath the driveway. All sorts of vehicles travel over them. See, I want to say, how it works is, the culverts get buried and cars drive over them. Since each spring sinkholes form and need to be filled because the either the culvert system isn't working right or there's an underground water channel or the God of Statistics has a hard on for me, I don't know.
This spring we have more sink holes. My neighbor seems to hijack me when I take the dogs for walks. For months we just turn around and avoid the situation. I don't have to hear the same stories over and over and give up hours of "casual" conversation so sticky I'd have to give up homeschooling and making meals for the kids. Today he went to see a lawyer after I called to him that I didn't have time to talk to him this morning. I'm not sure who's more mature: the one who just ignores the other, or the one that goes to talk to a lawyer because of it. The sinkholes are on his property but the water comes from down the hill and we live on it. The holes would probably close our driveway but he ought to be able to drive around them.
But he calls a lawyer on me? To do what? There are other reasons that I won't get into here about how one year of contact with the man is like ten dog's years time. We were good until the lawyer thing because now its like he's picking a fight with out a prize. I'm not going to deal with him. I'm going to deal with the driveway no matter whose property it falls on because that's what we need to do. His presence is immaterial on my actions. Frankly I hope he got himself a really expensive lawyer. I don't plan on even opening it. If it comes registered I'll just refuse delivery.
And I will do my damndest to forget all about it. These are the times I wish I was a Buddhist, and I could meditate on the true art of happiness, focus on freedom from want, and love my fellow man. Dude, I was crying tonight while watching a mixed martial arts match. Two huge guys just plain buttwhipped each other in the name of something not covered in polite Buddhist dharma. I almost couldn't watch it, eyes misting over, but I stuck it out until the match was stopped. These have no idea how to fight this like a sport. It seemed clear to me that with the massive blows the rained repeatedly into the same spots on their faces with their off hands clamped around the back of their opponents necks. Neither man at that point can control the damage that's being done to them, they just have to hang on and pummel longer. Not a lot of the sweet science here.
Free Tibet, already. There are exactly the guys you want to have out in the world teaching idiots me how to let things go and allow the feelings for natural happiness to come out. Running them over with Chinese tanks does nothing for my personal happiness.
And now it's time to go to bed, bearing no neighbor ill will. Tomorrow we'll try to get an expert out here who can tell us how we can overcome the situation. Tonight we bought five hundred pounds of rock from Home Depot and filled a coupld of the holes. I'd like to take the next letter I get from a lawyer and stick it the neighbor's front door. After all, the thing is intended to make him feel better.
So my gorgeous wife thinks I'm an ass. I wish she wouldn't. I've deal with unpleasant people all my life, this is the first time where the forced driveway kind of thing has come up. The driveway will be fixed somehow, then the problem will return next spring. And Tibet will still be in chains.
My ambien is kicking in. It's cool, when it does this it's like the words on the screen or on the page go 3D and move and pulse arond on their own..Another reason for wandering posts. Maybe by morning a new sinkhole will appear and solve my problem once and for all. A Buddhist can dream, can't I? Or at least a fan.
Sometimes it's good to remind ourselves of some good things that are personal in nature, that speak to your self-image. There are just too many damned people that will negatively influence your life without giving it a thought. It's just what people do. Not all, of course, just some. Enough, though, that the God of Statistics has put me into contact with far too many.
The good thing about the Blogosphere (no, it's not that hideous name) is that any idiot with access to a computer can write one. Such as me. I don't know what the hell I'm talking about at least 99% of the time. I didn't start this thing because I thought I had anything to say that any one ought to want to listen to. But then I realized that this is not the best attitude for an aspiring writer to take so I jumped in.
It quickly became something of a drill for me, "writing practice" as it were. The loose goal was simply to write a coherent thought in a style that was readable, fairly concise, and lucid. A strong opinion would be good, too, because really, that's the kind of person I am.
These entries are typically long, longer than I thought they'd be. I'm not sure if I just can't get to the point or if it comes out of the kind of voice I'm trying to write in. It doesn't help that I typically write these things while homeschooling my daughter. Six or seven interruptions per minute seems about the norm and I just can't maintain enough focus to jump back and forth without losing coherence.
Even now, I was going to write about flaky people and how I try to deflect their impact on my life by erasing them from my thoughts as much as possible. But I allowed my opening to grow, and then elongate, and now my internal blog clock is ringing so I have to wrap it up. Dammit, I'm trying...
My wife thinks I hold things against people; grudges, or something like that. Really, I don't, but she doesn't buy it. When I finally shut the door on my neighbor, he had just come literally screaming out of his house, wearing nothing but a pair of gym shorts, going off on me about the appliance man who committed the mortal sin of backing down my driveway. Since the beginning of my driveway overlaps with a portion of his, he felt that the appliance man should have turned around on my driveway than driven straight out without having to go twice over a buried culvert.
The culvert is a pipe that goes beneath the driveway. All sorts of vehicles travel over them. See, I want to say, how it works is, the culverts get buried and cars drive over them. Since each spring sinkholes form and need to be filled because the either the culvert system isn't working right or there's an underground water channel or the God of Statistics has a hard on for me, I don't know.
This spring we have more sink holes. My neighbor seems to hijack me when I take the dogs for walks. For months we just turn around and avoid the situation. I don't have to hear the same stories over and over and give up hours of "casual" conversation so sticky I'd have to give up homeschooling and making meals for the kids. Today he went to see a lawyer after I called to him that I didn't have time to talk to him this morning. I'm not sure who's more mature: the one who just ignores the other, or the one that goes to talk to a lawyer because of it. The sinkholes are on his property but the water comes from down the hill and we live on it. The holes would probably close our driveway but he ought to be able to drive around them.
But he calls a lawyer on me? To do what? There are other reasons that I won't get into here about how one year of contact with the man is like ten dog's years time. We were good until the lawyer thing because now its like he's picking a fight with out a prize. I'm not going to deal with him. I'm going to deal with the driveway no matter whose property it falls on because that's what we need to do. His presence is immaterial on my actions. Frankly I hope he got himself a really expensive lawyer. I don't plan on even opening it. If it comes registered I'll just refuse delivery.
And I will do my damndest to forget all about it. These are the times I wish I was a Buddhist, and I could meditate on the true art of happiness, focus on freedom from want, and love my fellow man. Dude, I was crying tonight while watching a mixed martial arts match. Two huge guys just plain buttwhipped each other in the name of something not covered in polite Buddhist dharma. I almost couldn't watch it, eyes misting over, but I stuck it out until the match was stopped. These have no idea how to fight this like a sport. It seemed clear to me that with the massive blows the rained repeatedly into the same spots on their faces with their off hands clamped around the back of their opponents necks. Neither man at that point can control the damage that's being done to them, they just have to hang on and pummel longer. Not a lot of the sweet science here.
Free Tibet, already. There are exactly the guys you want to have out in the world teaching idiots me how to let things go and allow the feelings for natural happiness to come out. Running them over with Chinese tanks does nothing for my personal happiness.
And now it's time to go to bed, bearing no neighbor ill will. Tomorrow we'll try to get an expert out here who can tell us how we can overcome the situation. Tonight we bought five hundred pounds of rock from Home Depot and filled a coupld of the holes. I'd like to take the next letter I get from a lawyer and stick it the neighbor's front door. After all, the thing is intended to make him feel better.
So my gorgeous wife thinks I'm an ass. I wish she wouldn't. I've deal with unpleasant people all my life, this is the first time where the forced driveway kind of thing has come up. The driveway will be fixed somehow, then the problem will return next spring. And Tibet will still be in chains.
My ambien is kicking in. It's cool, when it does this it's like the words on the screen or on the page go 3D and move and pulse arond on their own..Another reason for wandering posts. Maybe by morning a new sinkhole will appear and solve my problem once and for all. A Buddhist can dream, can't I? Or at least a fan.
posted by Rick Ollerman at 11:19 PM
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