Good Visions thread

[steve74baywin]

It has been interesting times for many of us.
I thought it would be a good idea to start doing what could be good.
I think many of us understand or believe certain things.
What we see, visualize and focus on can end up helping us to gravitate or achieve such things.
So I was thinking of a thread where we can post often or from time to time what we would like to see in our futures, and of course we could comment amongst ourselves on what each other post.
Here we go.

I look forward to an improvement and already feel how great it will be to be able to go on more than two or three trips in my bus a year, and camp at the wonderful camp outs in the Carolinas. It will be great to travel for weeks even, perhaps going further than central US. It will be awesome to visit states like California, Washington and Oregon.

[hambone]

Is life destined to be other than a boat ride? Some deceptive calm spots, just ahead of waterfalls and torrent?
We do what we can to see past the fat and flesh, and to not hold on too tight. Be kind to your neighbor as 2 ships that pass. Perhaps that's all there is. And have fun, and tire the wings....
If this is done with the truest of intent and heart, then perhaps all else is window dressing as life clicks into place like the last epic puzzle piece.
Nobody knows why we're here, but the blissful hand of the creator is evident in everything.
Yeah I know not very practical. I just don't see an Earth Tonic. The Japanese call perceived life "Bardos", meaning levels of hell that we must climb out of. Perhaps this is just such a level.
In India, they call it "Renunciation", meaning - give up the earthly pleasures, not for pain, but to see past their clouding nature. I guess if we get smackdown enough times then we lose taste of the bee-laden-honey. It seems inevitable.
See the creator's hand in everything, and do every act selflessly without pride or material gain. That there is heaven. What greater offering can be given? Throw yourself in front of the locomotive of society. Let the child inside float free.

[BellePlaine]

I like making lists and setting goals for myself. I don't believe that we are predestined to do or be anything. The garden doesn't weed itself.

[steve74baywin]

For a some time I have been aware of, or believed that what we focus on, what visions we have most in our minds can cause that to be the reality we create. I also have been not wanting much, sort of going with the flow, not desirous of better this or better that. To some extent that care free trusting attitude without any real goals, has probably been what caused me to get to the point of just squeaking by. This is why I feel I needed a turning point, there are things I like to do, I need to focus on those again.
It will be real nice to get some body work done on my VWs. They are all running good, or with a bit of work can be again, but it will be great to repair some of the holes in the metal.

[BellePlaine]

For a some time I have been aware of, or believed that what we focus on, what visions we have most in our minds can cause that to be the reality we create.

My buddy gave me a book called, The Anatomy of Hope. In it, there is a very affirming passage about the definition of hope.

Hope can arrive only when you recognize that there are real options and that you have genuine choices. Hope can flourish only when you believe that what you do can make a difference, that your actions can bring a future different from the present. To have hope, then, is to acquire a belief in your ability to have some control over your circumstances. You are no longer entirely at the mercy of forces outside yourself.

Something to think about if you are unhappy or sick.

[thesamwise4]

There's a great commencement speech that was given by the late David Foster Wallace that (kind of) addresses the subject you folks are discussing: how important it is to be present and active in the making of our own reality.

It became pretty popular when he killed himself, so I think that you may be familiar with it, but if you haven't yet read it, you should take a look. I honestly believe that it's one of those few pieces of writing that actually changed my life.


If you choose to read it, I hope you enjoy it. It's not very long. Best to you all.


http://moreintelligentlife.com/story/da ... -own-words

[ruckman101]

That was an awesome link thesamwise4. This is water.


thanks,
neal

[hambone]

Good stuff.

[ruckman101]

"The really important kind of freedom involves attention and awareness and discipline, and being able truly to care about other people and to sacrifice for them over and over in myriad petty, unsexy ways every day."

That resonates with me big time. I am experiencing major shifts in my reality, and am overwhelmed by the thought of trying to silence the noise that is me in my head yammering away, overthinking, stressing, missing the routine that so recently I defined myself by that I realized I don't know. What would that vision be, that expression, that word spoken in hopes of actualizing hopes into reality.

Vague doesn't cut it. Kum-by-yah-my-Lord won't get me very far. The vision is trying to crystalize out of a fog of mushy generalities.

Yet what choice do we have but to deal with the lot thrown us. A prime opportunity for re-definition. Colin re-defined himself what, some six years ago now? Green Cascadia has similarly inspired me. May I be as strong.

I'm encouraged by the support of my community of friends. Push comes to shove, I'll get by.

Welcome Home.


neal

[steve74baywin]

A couple of supporting quotes.

As above, so below. As within, so without. - The Emerald Tablet, circa 3000 BC

All that we are is the result of what we have thought. The mind is everything. What we think we become. - Buddha

[Amskeptic]

The older and more wizened I get, the more I see the privacy of our individual journeys, and the ever more fiercely I suspect those who stand up to lead others, particularly those with numbered lists.
"#11: write on the mirror, I am a powerful beautiful person! Say it twice a day..."

Blech for me.

I like that, in spite of all that we blab lecture preach demand of others, in the final analysis we are free to accept or not accept all of the good advice of others. THAT is the it for me, we are all searching on our own rungs of the ladder to enlightenment, and we individually are drawn to others who may help us, or help us figure out where we are by the very act of rejecting their widom.

When a teenager rejects the Very Good Advice of a parent or any "caring person", often that kid is labelled stupid or rebellious without second thought. Yet, that kid may be approaching Reality Itself from a different angle, and may be testing assumptions in valid ways that the rest of us do not have time for.

When I read
"The really important kind of freedom involves attention and awareness and discipline, and being able truly to care about other people and to sacrifice for them over and over in myriad petty, unsexy ways every day"
it did not strike me as a freedom, and I don't know what is so damn really important about it.
Yes, there are people who arrive at the above state of service. Privately. And it gives them private joy. And they do not sit around and preach it. He who writes of "really important freedom" is engaged in self congratulatory self-consciousness. I don't buy it.
"Sacrifice" is not sacrifice when you serve others willingly.

You gave the shirt off your back to someone, and they now have a shirt that they apparently wanted, and you do not have a shirt that you apparently did not want.
Do you now preach to people to give the shirt off your back to others? What are they supposed to do? Go give it to someone else? Give their pants to someone else?

Service to others when it springs freely from your sense that helping others with whatever your gift may be, is a joy. Yes, you may have read or heard of it from some exhortation and you decided to try it and realized that you like doing it, but that is, in the final analysis, a choice you made ... freely.

I have a nagging fear that self-conscious "really important freedom to sacrifice with attention and discipline blahblahblah" actually ruins the fun of, the actual joy of, freely arriving at your decision to serve others because you are ... happy to do so.

The greatest teachers/leaders I have known all seized me by their example, I got to watch them live their wisdom and I was filled with desire to emulate them.
Crablin

[thesamwise4]

Crablin, because you posted a persuasive argument against it, I am going to do my best to mount a brief defense of Wallace's speech.

I think the shirt example trivializes what he was getting at. The freedom and sacrifice that he was talking about are not really about giving things away; it's about doing the kind of active thinking that he talked about earlier in the speech--the whole, "I just worked a ten hour shift and now I have to go to the grocery store and it's crowded and everyone is awful and why are all these people in my way" example.

Recognizing that the people in front of me in line, slowing me down, pissing me off, are people and not just hurdles between me and my happiness/completion of my goals is a choice that I get to make or not make. I also get to decide how I react to that recognition. That's the freedom. The reason this even needs to be said is that, for Wallace, much about our daily lives, the way people interact with each other, and the ways by which we are told to seek happiness/fulfillment seem to encourage the opposite way of thinking. He believes that it's too easy to fall into the default, "zombie mode," where you go through life without being "actively present."

The way I read it, the sacrifice he speaks of is just about being able to put your own, knee-jerk reactions to stimuli aside and do the hard work of actually thinking about them. This is a sacrifice because it is really hard to do because you are a busy person with a lot on your plate and life can be pretty damn tough sometimes, and it robs you of the pleasure of having your thoughts about your own importance (or unimportance, I guess) confirmed ten/twenty times a day. To oversimplify it: my reading of this speech is that it's just about being willing to question yourself, your reactions, and your assumptions. I think the speech rejects the kind of "I'm a beautiful person on the mirror stuff," because that's just too easy and it doesn't force you to examine yourself in a critical light.

For Wallace, one of the consequences of this kind of work on yourself is that you will be better to those in your life because you are being more considerate of them, which leads to the kind of unsexy little ways of sacrificing, which are done not to show off, but because you believe they're the right things to do.

I have met some people who embody this ideal, and I envy them. I think I am somewhere in between, and I often find myself wishing, after the fact, that I had handled situations differently. Wallace's speech nicely captures a few of the thoughts and struggles I go through in this process.

Finally, I don't think that he is telling you what to do, I think he is just telling you to do something: to be thoughtful about how you live and how you interact with the world. For that reason, I think you guys are in agreement about a lot of things.

Anyway, the dead horse hath been beaten. Thanks for your response to the speech; I enjoyed reading it.

[steve74baywin]

Crablin, because you posted a persuasive argument against it, I am going to do my best to mount a brief defense of Wallace's speech.

I think the shirt example trivializes what he was getting at. The freedom and sacrifice that he was talking about are not really about giving things away; it's about doing the kind of active thinking that he talked about earlier in the speech--the whole, "I just worked a ten hour shift and now I have to go to the grocery store and it's crowded and everyone is awful and why are all these people in my way" example.


Thanks for your response to the speech; I enjoyed reading it.

Thank you for your summary. I actually wasn't sure how to take the speech by Wallace, which is why I hadn't commented on it. I was sorta rushing through reading it and couldn't grasp it all, so I was wanting to read it again when I had more time.

I want to mention, ATT, that I started this thread with the hope or intention of it being a good thing to aid many of us to create some better things in our lives mostly.
We have plenty of discussions on the IAC, and someone could start a Nay Sayer's thread, but I would like to keep this one positive,,,IE Good Visions...

[Velokid1]

Your intentions and expectations absolutely have some bearing on what life delivers to you. For me, it's sort of like meditation or yoga in that both of those things I have PROVEN to myself make an enormous difference in my physical well-being and emotional life, and yet I struggle to find the time or motivation for either.

Being intentional about your thoughts, feelings and expectations/wishes/goals is the same. It shapes your future in an undeniable way, and yet is so tricky to stay committed to. Negativity comes all too easily.

For myself... I am getting better at not being so damning of myself. Letting myself off the hook. Recognizing that in the roles that are most important to me (daddy, lover, friend) I have failures every single day... but I ALSO have successes every day. And overall, I am steadily becoming a better person. If I can just continue this same modest trajectory for the rest of my days, I will be satisfied with my time here. And if my kids gain strength and courage and joy from having me in their lives, that's some major icing on the cake.

More smiles, too. From everybody. The more smiles I see, the more smiles I feel. We're all absolutely connected, whether we like it or not. You can't push another person down without also pushing yourself down. And you can't lift another person without lifting yourself in the process. I hope I am able to get better and better at the Art of Spreading Smiles.

[Cindy]

This speech reminds me of an article I read once about a man who had been unjustly accused of rape and murder. After spending half his life locked up for something he did not do, new DNA evidence surfaced and he was finally set free. During an interview, he described his drive home from the prison: "We got stuck in the beautiful Boston traffic."

I will never forget that line. I try to remember it every day, especially when I find myself "inconvenienced." And it does feel like freedom--freedom from the infection of modern American thought and self-centeredness.

Cindy