Of course I’ll never know precisely what anyone else feels. I never claimed otherwise. I’m not sure what that has to do with how I feel.
Why on earth would I need to “be absolutely sure what (I’m) feeling is the same”? Is that a requirement for me to feel un alone?
I did read the material in the link you provided. I didn’t find it particularly compelling.
I’m not trying to argue with you, Cog. I surely hope that you are not saying a feeling I have is incorrect. I have no issue with someone considering themselves to be alone. Have at it. I do, however, find it presumptuous for someone to say “we all are alone” for I’m not alone.
That being said, there are, of course, limitations in language. Perhaps that is the root of this strange conversation. You are, in my estimation, welcome to describe yourself as alone. I would be grateful, however, if you would not drape that onto me by saying “we are all….” It doesn’t fit.
No. I am not talking about feelings at all. I think the last time I felt alone was in my teens. Being alone in the world has nothing to do with the feeling of being lonely or alone. Being alone is a physical state a person realizes they are physically by themselves. People live within their skins and no one is in there with them. This says nothing about ‘feelings of attachment.’ Being “lonely” is an emotional state where one feels disconnected from others. Feeling connected to others is also an emotional state. My connection to the world and others is the very fact that we are all in the same boat. I am in no way addressing any feelings of connectedness you may have. Feelings of connectedness can be demonstrated to be arbitrary. People fall in love with those who don’t love them back all the time. The extreme case is the stalker fan in love with his idol. This is not a love felt in any way. The fact that you can never really know another person’s thoughts or feelings is the lid on the coffin.
Our feelings are our own. Your feelings are your feelings, and they keep you from feeling alone or lonely. My personal belief is that this is healthy. It means you have a solid support foundation and people around you who love you. It means you have lived a good life and acquired real relationships that you value. I am honestly not taking, nor could I ever take, any of this from you.
One of the best things I could do for many people is to find them a support system. A place where they are accepted, loved, and supported. Many people I met throughout my life had all of this jerked away from them in some form or another. Feelings of love, support, and connectedness are comforting, and essential to us if we are going to thrive mentally and emotionally. I am not knocking the way you feel in any way. I am stating a simple physical fact about the physical universe. You, on the other hand, are arguing for an emotional fact about human existence. Perhaps one of the most defining features of humanity is our capacity for empathy, the ability to put ourselves in others’ shoes (connect to others). These positions are not mutually exclusive.
Perhaps we will have to agree that there are different ways of not feeling alone in the world.
I’d always assumed the phrase was a sort of metaphor for going into the unknown? Not unlike the phrase “that which doesn’t kill you makes you stronger” as this clearly isn’t always literally true.
A neighbour of mine had a stroke, drives to town now in one of those electric tricycles, has an oxygen cylinder on the back, takes it everywhere, can’t breath without it. So not dead, but definitely not stronger. Anyway I digress…
Yes. I agree with this. In my experience, I cannot separate my emotional self from my physical self. The two are inextricably linked. I am at least both of those things (and more). What happens with one, affects the other.
I am happy to agree that there are different ways of not feeling alone in the world. That’s a slam-dunk. Originally, I said I don’t understand why folks say everyone dies alone. I still don’t understand it. And that’s okay.
A bit like the Bible. There are some good parts and a whole-lot of shit! If you are willing to wade through all the shit, you might find something worth keeping. If you blindly walk and think it’s all good, you’re going to end up stinky.
In 1903, when Gandhi was in South Africa, he wrote that white people there should be “the predominating race.” He also said black people “are troublesome, very dirty and live like animals.”
I can’t imagine any healthy person looks forward to death and we do our best not to die. I lost my partner of 43 years to cancer and sitting with her when she died was a very powerful experience because she was able to slip away so peacefully. Since then I have thought about death more often than I had in the past. What I have concluded is that if all we become after death is stardust I won’t notice a thing. If on the other hand we’re “wrong” and there is something there then that’s Okay too. I lead the best life I can and do my best to tidy up after myself. So what’s to fear? When you discard religion you can rid yourself of the fear that religion needs to motivate its “believers”.
Hot Cold. Baal Yahweh Mono Poly Masc Feminine Shekina Physical world Angels Animal Feminine Electricity Seraphim Churubium. Deaths Not The End Just different experience. And this World has limited energy Till life cant exist and You know You Got To physically manualing do that because we dont Deserve because We Kill People With Power.
Jello slushies, Hamster oil, Gluteus maximus cannibal fodder Omar Sharif pixie fiddles. The beginning is not just the end, but an extension of the infantile foreverness consuming the recommended daily allowance of dietary fiber toward the betterment of holistic fishermen chumming for predatory Alpha Omegas. Thus we deserve the self-righteousness of glorified hunkledorks hidden within the meaningless flotsam of future railway catastrophes.
platoesknowledge I gave you a like because I have heard about people talking in tongues but your the first one I’ve met. Well there was that one girl I met back in 68 at a Be-In. Reminds me of that Paul Simon Song, “As she led me to the woods saying her comes something and feel so good.” But somehow I don’t think that’s your message. Cheers and try not to let that monster under your bed get you.
Aw, C’MON! Again??? I was just getting warmed up for my counter-counter rebuttal! My Theory of Relative Relativity argument would have stopped him stone-tepid dead in his horse and buggy haystack.
I don’t have any actual fear personally. There’s apprehension in regards to the unknown of course and that’s understandable. The only thing that really and truly dies as far as I’m concerned, is just the ego or the person that you think you are right now.
But fear? No not anymore , only by the very fact that I was even born establishes there is nothing to be fearful since its proven already that life manifests from the “abyss” all the time when conditions are right.
My logic is if it can happen once, it can most certainly happen again, and we know that we are comprised of nothing but atoms that really do nothing but rearrange into endless forms and configurations, so it would be illogical to think we are really destroyed permanently into some kind of unescapable dark oblivion as energy cannot be destroyed, and with the odds now set at firmly 1:?, that assures me at some point after death, years , centuries, or maybe even a couple of Big Bangs later, the lights will come on again when conditions are right of which I suspect the cycle of life and death will always be infinite and repeatable.
The only unknown I’m concerned about would be who , where, what, and when, but then I’ll have no memory of any past lives, so I kind of figured that will be really for the next living creature to worry about.
