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Futuristic Suit Lets You Feel What It's Like To Be An Old Man
HughPickens.com writes: Andy Newman writes at the New York Times about an exhibit at Liberty Science Center in Jersey City that lets users walk a proverbial mile in their elders' orthopedic shoes and experience the stooped shuffle, the halting speech, and the dimming senses of an 85-year old man. It is not a very pleasant experience. An attendant cranks up a fader and your vision dissolves into melty, grayed-out blobs, like a memorably unvivid psychedelic experience, more knobs twiddle, and your hearing is subsumed in a fog of tinnitus, muffling and distortion. Loaded with hardware and a computer, the suit itself weighs 40 pounds, distributed as uncomfortably as possible. "It's going to get much worse," promises Bran Ferren, the suit's inventor. "You haven't lived."
According to Newman, in just 10 minutes, the aging suit induced a remarkable amount of frustration, depression and hopelessness. There are entire realms of wretchedness attendant upon owning and operating an 85-year-old body that the exhibit does not even touch upon. Comprehensive sagging, internal and external. Pain in places you did not know could hurt. Difficulty urinating. Difficulty not urinating. Watching your friends die off. Watching yourself become irrelevant, an object of pity or puzzlement if acknowledged at all. By allowing a younger generation to feel the effects of aging firsthand, the suit provides a newfound perspective that hopefully inspires a conversation with loved ones about getting older so, collectively, family and friends can better prepare for the future. If doing even the most basic tasks of daily living is this much trouble, you wonder, why bother? But it also makes you a little less likely to lose patience and a little more likely to feel empathy with the older people in your life. "My father, Aaron Newman, happens to be 85," says Newman. "I called him up. I described the treadmill experience and asked if that sounded about right." "No," he said. "It's much worse."
According to Newman, in just 10 minutes, the aging suit induced a remarkable amount of frustration, depression and hopelessness. There are entire realms of wretchedness attendant upon owning and operating an 85-year-old body that the exhibit does not even touch upon. Comprehensive sagging, internal and external. Pain in places you did not know could hurt. Difficulty urinating. Difficulty not urinating. Watching your friends die off. Watching yourself become irrelevant, an object of pity or puzzlement if acknowledged at all. By allowing a younger generation to feel the effects of aging firsthand, the suit provides a newfound perspective that hopefully inspires a conversation with loved ones about getting older so, collectively, family and friends can better prepare for the future. If doing even the most basic tasks of daily living is this much trouble, you wonder, why bother? But it also makes you a little less likely to lose patience and a little more likely to feel empathy with the older people in your life. "My father, Aaron Newman, happens to be 85," says Newman. "I called him up. I described the treadmill experience and asked if that sounded about right." "No," he said. "It's much worse."
And if it doesn't hurt, it leaks.
A substantial portion of the readers of Slashdot are already well aware of how the ypotame of age hits you, squarely in the tummy, before jumping all over you.
It wouldn't be so bad if gravity hadn't increased too. This, of course, being a side effect of the world haven gotten smaller.
This is news? I know there's always this delusional part of the population that says they feel better at 40 than at 20, but they're idiots.
Aging should be studied, understood, controlled and eventually reversed.
Fuck aging. There's nothing glorious about grey hair, bald spots, high blood pressure, failing memory, decreasing processing power, declining physical capabilities, and for the money-hungry among us, the extra cost on society of old, feeble, decrepit bodies.
Why there isn't the same level of excitement for anti-aging, as, say, colonizing Mars, is very difficult to understand.
Remember the old farts you make fun of? The only thing that separates you from them is time.
The shepherds did so well protecting the flock that the sheep no longer believed that wolves existed.
beyond the reach of law.
I don't need a goddamn suit to know what it feels like to be an old man.
You are welcome on my lawn.
It took my tailor 60 years to make.
Have gnu, will travel.
No point in sitting around waiting to die, hoping the money lasts.
I'm 49. My grandfather performed in the Senior Olympics at 82 and ran a 5K in 32 minutes. Still a record in Missouri. He lived to be 100. His body outlasted his mind. Life is what you make of it. If you sit around on you keester watching TV into your 80's, whining about your bladder or other items, you get what you deserve. Mark it Flamebait if you want. Truth is truth.
delivery may take up to 50 years.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/fem...
Unfortunately, I feel like I am 100.
http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/...
Two words: cock cage.
How about a suit that lets old people feel like to be young again?
Now *THAT* there'd be a real market for.
File under 'M' for 'Manic ranting'
Instead of expensive tech-suits, just let somebody beat the shit out of you. The next morning you will feel 100.
Table-ized A.I.
Alfred P, of course. But I'm not worried.
Damn_registrars has no butt-hole. Damn_registrars has no use for a butt-hole.
A suit that makes old people feel young!! That would be swell!
"Helping to keep you two steps ahead of the Thought Police!"
So what's the business model, here? Try the suit on for free, suicide pills afterward are $1,000?
who needs a suit - I already know...
The worst part of getting old is your cock no longer working right. It becomes perpetually soft, and impossible to get never mind maintain an erection. Even morning wood stops happening eventually. The penis still sort of works for urinating, but because it no longer gets erect it can't be used for insemination or even self-pleasure. How does this suit simulate that experience?
Just as a FYI, about half the people on this planet don't even have a cock.
His body outlasted his mind.
Old age, as my almost 90 dad says, "sure beats the alternative".
I don't mind my failing body and mind so far. For me, it's not about the car, it's about the trip.
I've seen some cool things happen over the years, and I want to see more.
I wonder what it was like for my grandparents to see all this. They were born in the 1800's and lasted until the 1970's
No cars, no radio, no airplanes, no refrigerators, no air conditioning, no electric lights, no telephone. Only the well to do had heat other than a fire in a box.
My grandmothers could not legally vote when they were young women.
Can you imagine how cool it was to see all that come into life?
As for me, I was 6 years old the first time I saw a television. I still think it's cool in so many ways.
I was a teenager when I saw a computer in use for the first time. I believe it was a GE 200 series.
At about that time, the USA had more nuclear weapons than computers.
There were no satellites yet.
I basically saw the entire space program unfold from start to present. Except when sputnik was launched; I don't recall the actual event. I remember people talking about it later.
Everyone in the neighborhood (suburbian) went outside at night to watch Echo 1 pass overhead. Street lights were still a rarity outside the central city areas. We could see the milky way any clear night, so spotting satellites wasn't hard.
I saw the first man step onto the moon live on TV.
I saw the Berlin wall come down and the Soviet Union collapse. ... well, we'll see what happens.
We're seeing China transform from an anthill slave society into
I grew up in the totally segregated south and saw the civil rights movement happen, and I saw how much individual people can change.
Humanity, when it's working right, is amazing.
The most recent doctor that treated me in the hospital is a black woman. Inconceivable in the 1950's in the South, or come to think of it, pretty much anywhere in the USA.
I remember a 1950's science fiction story where everyone was telepathic. Knowing everyone else's thoughts all the time was a living nightmare.
Thanks to Facebook, texting, etc, we nearly have that now.
I really don't mind so much that I can no longer sleep on one side because it hurts too much to sleep, or that I cannot plan when to go to the bathroom, or that I need the subtitles turned on to understand British television...
There are so many interesting things happening, and thanks to growing up in the 20th century, the whole terrorism thing is, well, shrug, so what, to me.
I'm betting on something like CRISPR/cas9 to be the next "who knew we could do that?" technology. This is going to be way cool.
I'm hoping to see mosquitoes extinct, or at least the ones attracted to humans.
There was a 1958 movie "The Long Hot Summer". It had Paul Newman, Joanne Woodward, Orson Wells, etc.
If you saw it, you'll remember the closing lines from Will Varner standing in front of his burning barn.
It's like that.
Any web designer who ever uses light gray text on a slightly darker gray background or a font less than 10 pt should be forced to wear the vision fader for a month at least.
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I would guess mostly between 32-60. We are young at heart though. We play with shiny, blinky, clicky toys. Young hearts push Fox news off cliff when not looking.
Growing up as a geek, I was also really physical. I've played a life of physical sports, like hockey, soccer, football (touch in stead of tackle though), swimming, body surfing, hiking, hunting and climbing, fantastic stuff. Ironically it balances the mental effort I put into electronics and coding and I found I could focus really well.
My true love of physical activity has been Martial Arts. Throughout my 20's and 30's I did Thai boxing and during training the conditioning involved full power kicks and punches all over the body. When I was in my late 30's I could still do the splits, back flip and I was playing soccer when I snapped an achillies tendon, facing a wheel chair and cronic pain syndrome. It took almost three years to be able to walk again and significant determination to do so. I learned alot about physiotherapy and mental determination from sport was . Team sport were over for me, the balistic impacts were from other player. I was able to resume martial arts, currently BJJ, which is like physical chess, I love it. I got to competitition level, competed - only minor titles, but enough to test myself.
Over a decade later this activity has led to injuries all over the body that causes all sorts of aches and pains. Over the last couple of years (I diarise injuries) I noted that the *rate* of injuries progressing, recovery time longer. I was still training. My physical strength was still excellent and I'm able to fight guys 20-30 years younger, however I often noticed that strength could exceed my joints. Control was very important, pain was all over my body and, I noticed that I had pretty severe internal scarring accumulated in my muscles. Knots in my back so tight and painful that the physios elbow was into it and his feet were off the ground, and still I needed more pressure. Similar things around the rest of my body. I came to the conclusion that it was time to look at the state of my body.
I talked to my doctor who was surprised when I bought in my data that I had diarised and showed him some of the relationships I'd found, I was pressing him to authorize more physiotherapy. He did and with the assistance of another doctor and two physio therapists (both with Masters themselves who treat currently competing athletes) my body became a bit of an experiment. Dry needling is the main therapy used and over the past two years, I've stopped all training and physical activity and had over 4000 needles stuck into almost every muscle, joint and, tendon in my body. Sometimes 50 needles at a time.
That resulted in various odd and often very painful releases of scar tissue, intense periods of repeated joint cavitaion (cracking) in almost every joint in my body. Joints would go through periods of bone ossification and reform for weeks. One major event involved my left elbow. I was ashen grey, my left arm was numb and my chest constricted, but I wasn't having a heart attack. Instead my elbow released 10-20 degrees of movement, it swelled to almost the size of my knee down to my wrist in a session of 60-100 cavitations of the elbow over six hours. It was exhausting, I'm not sure if I was in shock, but I felt very ill for a few days. After that, I felt amazing, I had been carrying scarring from that injury (I broke my wrist in a fight once) for almost 20 years.
I'm almost at the end of this therapy, a process that uncovered 24 major injuries in my body each releasing with a intensity varying upto what I described above and currently the physios are trying to re-allign my hips, which will probably be the final and most painful cavitaion I've been slowly working up to.
I'm more physically out of shape than I have been because of intentional de-conditioning of the body however, I feel great. I'm middle aged now and I can still not only touch my toes, but stand on my fingers and I'm working my way back to doing the splits. A couple of weeks ago I woke up, got in the shower and realized there was no more pain. As a bonus, I'm also not as grumpy as I used to be and my mind is much cl
My ism, it's full of beliefs.
Comment removed based on user account deletion
This has been done and covered plenty of times before years ago. I'm feeling older already.
Sponsored by Slashdot.
Get your PSA checked. Serious. One of the tell tale signs that cancer is underway is feeling aged.
For this time of life, there are the Three Nevers:
1. Never pass up a urinal;
2. Never trust a fart;
3. Never waste an erection.
"Just as a FYI, about half the people on this planet don't even have a cock."
But how many of those will you find on Slashdot?
My mother still runs a business at age 94.
Least popular ride at Epcot. 'nuff said.
If this isn't an April Fools joke, what's wrong with people? You can't simulate the gradual adjustment to conditions. People who *suddenly* lose something go through that whole process that ends with acceptance. With aging, you have a long time to accept it. It's not like putting on a stupid suit.
For all intensive purposes, "whom" is no longer a word. That begs the question, "who cares"?
Self euthanize at 40. After all, over 40 you're over the hill anyway. Just a waste of resources.
putting the 'B' in LGBTQ+
"Watching your friends die off."
Actually, watching my friends pass away is way better than the alternative- having them watch me pass away. I don't like going to funerals but I'd rather go to theirs than they go to mine.
As far as I'm concerned, one of the better parts of getting older is watching your enemies die off. I confess, that's given me quite a bit of pleasure so far. :)
I suppose I should feel bad about it, but I really don't. Every time one of them dies I feel a renewed sense of vigor and satisfaction. "Yipee, I out lived that fucking asshole, yay for ME!" And I have a drink. Not in their memory, but just because I can. :)
So fuck you, Mike W., James P., and Jerry L. You're all dead and I'm still eating bacon sandwiches and banging my lovely young wife. Suck it, boys. Oh, that's right, you can't- because you're dead. ha ha ha ha!
Just cruising through this digital world at 33 1/3 rpm...
Hahaha! Everything is great when you're 85! /weeps
So, we should exercise and be fit so if we do grow old, it won't be as bad? Or is this wrong thinking?
"Just as a FYI, about half the people on this planet don't even have a cock."
But how many of those will you find on Slashdot?
lol, You win this one.
Mostly the ones who made a conscious decision to not have a cock.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inverted_totalitarianism
Nice post, it was worth reading and enjoyed reading it.
wait wasn't this an episode of happy days? chachi gets schooled.
Kids these days.
If I could go back in time to my younger self, I would have told him -
"Don't change a thing, you're awesome. Word of warning though, all those bones you're breaking are going to hurt later. Also, buy Ericsson-LG in 2001"
"No good deed goes unpunished"
...Said the Vorlon, before eliminating yet another ridiculous a baby boomer.
Seriously, that generation has fucked up the world enough and it's been impossible to drive them out of power outside of them dying off. Can you imagine what life would be like with them lording over us forever?
And before any bitter, overly-scared-of-brown-people 60-somethings start whining, I'm quite aware that my own generation and the following generations will be equally reviled for the same thing.
Humanity is absolutely terrible about passing the goddamned baton when they should.
What is this for? A warning to young people not to age?
fat suit?
And you know what? It hurts, and stops me doing things, but I don't go crawling to the next generation saying "Look at me - this will be you in a short while!"
The 50s and 60s Baby Boomer generation had a good run. We built on Victorian/Edwardian science and technology to open up a much larger base of human knowledge, shrunk the world and addressed most of the famine and disease which was still endemic in many countries. We did less well with our politics, but we tried to stop the cycle of world power bloc wars. We had the Beatles. And Turing and Von Neumann and Tim Berners-Lee...
But, as we dropped religion as a main ethical driver, a lot of our thinking became 'Me, Me...Me'. And the idea of a suit to show the 2000s generation what it feels like to be old is a classic example of that. We should be working while we can, and when we can't we should sit by the fire, admire our grandchildren, and encourage them on to create better things which we will never see.
Not trying to drag them back to sympathise with Granddad.
We conquered the air for you. Get out there, next generation. Get out into Space, and have fun!
Wake me when they make a suit that makes you feel young again. THAT would be news!
We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
I am 58. People look at me funny when the subject comes up and I say that I don't really want to live past 70. I'm kind of good with 65, really. I don't want to live forever - even if I were to retain good health. I'm currently in excellent health, according to my doctor and all the tests, but I'm still good with 70. By then, it'll be time for me to get out of the way and make room for the next person, so it's all good.
I do kind of wonder what will happen to my digital assets. I'll have to script some sort of bot to keep posting novellas long after I'm dead and gone. Hell, I can just recycle old posts, based on keywords, and still be topical on Slashdot. I just have to scrape all of my old posts, index 'em, and then scan for new threads. There should be enough material in there to go for another dozen years and nobody will even know the difference.
Someday, someone'll realize, "Hey, wait a minute... Shouldn't you be 114 by now?" My great grand kids (none of which do I have at this point) will get to watch it and think it's the greatest troll ever. Or maybe one of 'em will be "me" online when I'm dead and gone. Probably not...
"So long and thanks for all the fish."
You don't need to be old to feel like you're just a number in someone else rich life.
I really, really want to take the low-hanging fruit for a reply and post it as an AC but I'll be the better man - today.
Still, that's pretty awesome.
"So long and thanks for all the fish."
That's why I want to start doing exercise, 5-10 hours a week. I'm 46, look like 38, have 10 years of performing Arts, only ride Bike, walk and use PT. I've been doing Tango for 8 years and started Yoga this year. I slumped on it the last six weeks but I'm getting back to 3-5 per week on Monday. Sensei Ueshiba, founder of Aikido was doing Aikido daily just up to the age of 83, weeks before he died.
Shaolin Monks can do splits, unassisted, at the age of 80+ and on Okinawa you've got men aged 76 starting to train for marthons because they're bored.
Good diet (Palo/slow Carb), permanent exercise, cult of less, stoic/student lifestyle and part-time with enough time for all that with fun contrast Programms. Plus systematic and persistent muscle Training/workout from the age of 50.
That's what keeps you up and healthy until the day your time is up.
I'm not scared about getting old, but I sure as hell don't want to become a whimp about it.
My 2 cents.
We suffer more in our imagination than in reality. - Seneca
... and new Cialis FSB is here to help you with all three!
[Energetic 70-somethings dance and laugh on an outdoor, string-bulb-lit dance floor as a jazz band plays]
Nothing posted to
Not all elder people suffer. My father does sport three times a week, is still able to ride 80+ kilometres (50+ miles) bicycle rides, and looks 15-20 younger than he is. Very little grey hair. Better eye vision than I have. Almost no sagging skin at all. All internal organs are like new and work perfectly. No osteoarthritis whatsoever.
Are you referring to tomhudson/BarbaraHudson?
Awwww. Poor baby, his back hurt for a few minutes so now he knows all about aging. Maybe he should start smoking cigarettes so he won't get old.
What? Wait.
If you don't want to age, then what age do you want to be stuck at?
17 - perpetual teenager?
21 - perpetual college student partier?
35 - perpetual company man/woman?
50 - perpetual CEO?
65 - perpetual retired person?
70 - perpetual grandma/grandpa?
Or, do you want aging to slow down?
Double, triple or quadruple lifetimes?
Do you really want to work for 100 years?
And could you raise 3 or maybe 4 families in that time?
Would you marry/divorce multiple times?
Would you become bored?
What if you woke up with a lifelong disease - would you bear with it for a 100 years?
A lot of people have life-altering crisis experiences in their 40s. They suck at the time, but many people wake up after going through them.
With aging comes experience. With experience comes wisdom. With wisdom you can see through the bull sh*t people shovel at you [like VB.NET :) ].
Aging is part of life.
People came before us and people will come after us.
Like the progression of hardware/software, would you still want to be stuck with a DEC Rainbow running CP/M?
If you don't feel like aging is "fair", then maybe it's time to get your face out of your iPhone and look around and see the world.
And, please don't flame me; I didn't make the rules.
It would be filed against every tech company that practices age discrimination.
So you're going to make a Lenny bot for slashdot?
Kudos to that
Seen on facebook: "Birthdays are like boogers. The more you have, the harder it is to breathe".
The dummy who came up with this stupid suit doesn't know many elderly, because WE ALL AGE AT DIFFERENT RATES. My mother is 88. She goes bowling twice a week, has no hearing problems and gets around easily. Meanwhile I know a woman who's 70 who looks older than my mom (Mom's brother is in his late nineties). A couple years ago before I retired they had a health screening at work. My vitals were those of a healthy forty year old, and I was 61.
Eyesight? I had cataract surgery on my left eye in 2006 and have better than 20-20 at all distances. Steroids caused it, will need the other eye done some time.
CBS News had a thing about aging a couple months ago saying that a forty year old should be able to sit on the floor and get up using only one hand. Gail Norris couldn't do it with both hands and needed help getting up, I can get up with no hands needed and I'm 20 years older than her.
As to being in pain, I've had arthritis since my teens. It was at its worst from 1971-1973 when I was stationed in that God-forsaken Delaware.
I do get "senior moments". It's like being stoned without smoking any pot. "Uh, what were we talking about again?"
This story fits today perfectly - it's my 64th birthday.
Free Martian Whores!
According to Groucho, you're only as old as the women you feel. Maybe you need a new girlfriend.
Pretty much. It's sad when young people in their 40s talk like they have experience with the effects of ageing. They don't. My 40 year old self was an ignoramus too.
I don't think this suit will simulate it well either. Because you still have the young self beneath the suit, and won't feel the aches and pains of sitting still, or the crunch of a shoulder joint, or the joy of waking up with footcicles, or the fear that if you fall more than two inches, you'll break something.
The day I realized I was old was when I sat on the bedside, wishing I were lying down.
"I would guess mostly between 32-60"
Youve got to be kidding. Id guess maybe 30%-35% of ~readers~ are in that age range - as for posters, most of these idiots (at least 60%) seem to be in the 16-25 age group with a significant portion of them having/claiming to have/wishing they had some sort of disorder, usually on the autism spectrum.
Surprising. Frederik Pohl wrote for longer than that. His works spanned 75 years. He was ninety four when he published his last novel.
Personally, I'm not in any hurry to " get out of the way and make room for the next person". At 64 (as of today) I'm having the time of my life. No alarm clock after a lifetime of alarm clocks. Unlimited time to read, to write, to learn, to teach, to create.
When she was 95 my grandmother told me "I don't know why anybody wants to live to be a hundred. It ain't no fun bein' old." She lived five more miserable years. When I reach that point I'll be looking forward to paradise, but until then, well, as long as I'm happy why would I want to leave?
Free Martian Whores!
David Cronenberg was so far ahead of his time with Videodrome. One of his characters is dead but continues doing talk shows via video clips.
Intron: the portion of DNA which expresses nothing useful.
Cialis doesn't work when you're drinking, and that's the only time I ever get laid.
Free Martian Whores!
Sadly, there is no paradise, no Valhalla, no Hell either for that matter. No afterlife, just like there was no "beforelife".
You're just a pattern encoded in three and a half pounds of fat, supported by the chemicals from a ~180 pound bag of organs.
Unlimited time to read, to write, to learn, to teach, to create.
Time enough at last!
Are you referring to tomhudson/BarbaraHudson?
Don't knock it if you haven't tried it :-)
"Transparent" is a shit show that trades on every stereotype going. A man in drag is NOT a transsexual.
I'll be 60 in 2 months, and I want to get into the triple digits. There's still way too much to discover.
"Transparent" is a shit show that trades on every stereotype going. A man in drag is NOT a transsexual.
Happy birthday :-)
"Transparent" is a shit show that trades on every stereotype going. A man in drag is NOT a transsexual.
See, I've already accomplished every goal I have. I really have to make meaningful things up to do or I get bored. I've learned enough about all the things I want to know - and enough about some of them to know I don't want to learn more. I've been everywhere I've wanted to go - except North Korea and I only want to go there because they tell me I can't. I own all the things I could ever really want to own - and then some.
I also don't fear death or anything. I kind of look forward to the respite from daily living. No, I'm not really depressed or anything - nor am I suicidal. I'm just content.
Dunno how much sense that makes to others but it makes sense to me. ;-)
I even went out and shuffled a little bit on the dance floor earlier. Yay me... I'd say I'm gonna be sore tomorrow but probably no worse than normal. Life is good and the remainder of the place is now shuffled off to bed.
"So long and thanks for all the fish."
Happy birthday! And I've been living like that since I retired 8 years ago. I've done all the fun things I wanted, etc... I've had fun. Someone else can take my space. Death doesn't scare me. I see it as respite, as peace, as tranquility and sleep. I'm content with life. I'm very happy with what I've accomplished. I've learned all that I wanted, read what I wanted, and even bedded enough women for several of us. ;-)
Let someone else take over and let me finally get some solid rest. (I don't sleep well, long story. I'm a true insomniac and, to make it worse, I've got sleep apnea. The sleep I get is pretty low-quality and I don't do anything for it and I won't take sleeping medication.)
"So long and thanks for all the fish."
I get you. It makes total sense. It cheeses me off how much health issues have cut into my life in the last 5 years, keeping me from doing what I want, but I think now even though the eyes won't ever get better and depression is going to continue to be a recurring event, I can work with it instead of against it. 6 months of suckage, then 6 months of good, is survivable. Probably because when it's good, it's like seeing the whole world anew after months of darkness.
I still have lots of things to do and people to do them to (JOKE). And I want to know how the mess we've made turns out.
I certainly don't fear death - half the time it looks like the better option, unfortunately. Who knows, maybe they'll find a cure ... :-)
"Transparent" is a shit show that trades on every stereotype going. A man in drag is NOT a transsexual.
Sorry to hear these things. Don't forget tho you've got a wealth of experience to share. I for one think you have great value to this society. @dariusmacsean
Sorry? Oh, don't be. It's absolutely lovely to be well and truly content. To me, that is enlightenment. There are things left for me to do but there's nothing important left. I've accomplished every single one of my meaningful dreams. I've done everything I really want to do. I'm content. I never asked for or expect perfection. I would also say that I never really asked to be "happy." However, I am happy - because I'm content.
That probably does sound strange to people now that I look at it with a more critical eye. However, imagine - if you can, to be able to say, "Yes. I have done everything I've ever really wanted to do, been everywhere I've really wanted to go, and have everything I can possibly need and no worries about needing anything ever again."
That's content. To me, that's happiness. There are still things that I will do. There are still accomplishments that I may reach and achievements I may work for but they're not pressing, not important, not essential. I have laughed, I have cried. I have sung, I have danced. I have been foolish and wise. I've been low and I've been high. I've been inebriated and I've been sober.
How many people, truly introspective people, can look at their lives and say that they've done everything they want? That doesn't mean that the rest of my existence is without meaning - it means that anything from here on out is a bonus and more than I'd a right to ask for - by far. I still have a lot to write but that's something I've already done a lot of. I still have more to learn but I know enough about the subjects I have most urgently wanted to learn. I've been on icecaps and in deserts. I've been in the ocean and on it. I've been in the air and across the ground. I've been really damned poor and quite well to do. I broken and mended hearts. I run towards the sounds of screams and gun fire. I've run away from someone bigger and badder than I. I've had my heart broken and mended.
Don't be sad for me. Not at all. I'm probably one of the most content people on the planet. If anything, that's cause to celebrate. It doesn't mean life is bland and meaningless. It doesn't mean I don't enjoy it. It just means that I'm content to die today. How to explain this?
Hmm...
Where I to die today, there's not one thing that I'd regret not having done. To me, that's an excellent place to be - both mentally and physically.
I should also mention, again, that I am a practicing, albeit secular (as confusing as that sounds), Buddhist. I have every reason to believe that my existence is temporary. I have every reason to believe that my atoms will be used again - albeit not in the typically believed in sense of reincarnation. I believe that my atoms will one day be the same atoms that make up a star or, perhaps, a black hole. My atoms will exist for a near eternity. Obviously, they won't be impacted by their prior composition nor have any memory of it - but they will, some day, make up the matter that is the stars.
The Earth will turn to cinders as the Sun expands. We'll be in gaseous form. We'll coalesce and time and gravity will bring us together and we will be the matter that makes up a star. We'll be expelled in unimaginable waves of energy and become planets and, potentially, even life. And this cycle will repeat for billions and billions of years before it finally gets to cold, old, and slow - where it either stops or "rips" and it might start the process all over again.
I do not fear that. It'd be futile to fear it anyhow, I have no say in the matter. On the karmic scale, for what it is worth, I'm on the positive side - I'm sure of this. Even if I wasn't, we're a pragmatic lot and I could easily justify even the more troublesome of deeds. I am not completely rid of desire, I am not a monk - I'm not even a faithful practitioner but a secular practicing Buddhist - and not even a very good one at that.
It's not sad. It's wonderful. How many other people get to die content and knowing that they've accomplished every last single one of their meaningfu
"So long and thanks for all the fish."
LOL I'm reading the replies backwards. i wish I'd seen this one before typing out my other reply. That would have saved some time. Ah well...
Err... You've got a novella waiting for you. :P
It's not *too* long. In the not-too-distant future, I'll share a link and you can visit a site I'm working on - it's for open communication, free speech in other words.
However, it has the caveat that it needs to be civil. Uncivil comments will be removed - even though anonymous people will be allowed and encouraged to participate. There's a whole lot more to it than that but that is the gist of it. I've no idea how well it will work. I do know I know a lot of people who may actually be interested in such a thing.
The end game is to make it fund itself (it's also part of a bet - the web/I and "nothing" vs. "traditional" social media avenues and qualitative and numeric results are the metric but I'm not at liberty to discuss it at depth as that spoils the fun - and makes me lose the bet) and then, ideally, to hand it off to be owned by the community itself. I don't want ownership nor control. I want to participate. I'm simply starting it as I feel it needs to be done and done well.
So, that's something... I'll give a yell and you can check it out then - if you want.
Anyhow, if I'd read this one first, I'd have had a shorter post as my other reply. *sighs* I'm good at that novella thing. But, I do go into some detail and explain it a bit better. The comment was that you were sorry and so I read that as you thinking I wasn't enjoying myself or that my existence was mundane or devoid of meaning. Nope, it's just bonus rounds and I still only had to spend just a few quarters. I just keep hitting those one-ups or getting lucky at multi-ball.
I *know* DAMNED well that you're old enough to know what I speak of. *grins*
"So long and thanks for all the fish."
That's something the 30-somethings won't get ...
"Transparent" is a shit show that trades on every stereotype going. A man in drag is NOT a transsexual.
Only if you have a cardiovascular problem. It can be like a rock well into the 70s.
Well, here's another clue for you all... The walrus is Paul.
No, they probably won't get it...
Good call, by the way. I'm soon abed and I was listening to James Taylor (one of the actually good greatest hits albums out there) but I could do with the change. I'm thinking the White album.
"So long and thanks for all the fish."
I've been hearing the same thing all my life. At 20 a friend said he couldn't imagine living past 40. At 30 a different friend said the same thing about 50. These days 70 is still pretty vigorous, for a lot of people. My dad at 66 is still doing carpentry. He manages more than he does the manual labor, but he can hang drywall or build a deck if he wants. I know at 70 my grandparents were still playing golf and tennis, and they may have been into their 80's.
The trick to aging is the degeneration is a slow process, and you find ways to replace some of the things lost with other perks. So yeah, if you're 30 and a suit makes you suddenly blind and unable to walk, it's nearly crippling. But if it creeps up on you over half a century, it may still be frustrating but you've got a lot more time to adjust. It's still a slow creep of pain and indignities, but it's not like hitting a brick wall.
Or, as the saying goes, it may suck getting older, but for most people it still beats the alternative.
The Quirkz Handbook of Self-Improvement for People Who Are Already Pretty Okay
Actually, I started programming anew and have even been doing some web-related stuff. Why? I swear it feels like I can feel my brain plasticize. I want to avoid that as much as I can so I work on learning things daily.
"So long and thanks for all the fish."
Nothing beats the classics :-)
"Transparent" is a shit show that trades on every stereotype going. A man in drag is NOT a transsexual.
Thanks! It would have been happier if I hadn't been getting over the flu.
Free Martian Whores!
Thanks. I'm not afraid of dying, as I stood at death's door 40 years ago this past January and know it's a beginning, not an end. But I still have a few things on my bucket list, like winning a Hugo and a Nebula and a Campbell, and I'm not even eligible for a Nebula yet (have to sell 3 stories)
Free Martian Whores!