You are ABSURD!

Let the adoration begin...

That was a really brave thing you did there. In a group of "You're your own god" peeps, to stand up and declare that you know better...well that just makes me wanna dance all the more.

I had an NDE a few years back and that is when I became absurd. It was a total wake up call. But being the spoiled rotten brat that I am, it took me years to realize that those things were just to fill the void.

Now, on the path to obscurity, I often ask myself "Why?" What purpose do all those cars serve? You pay insurance on all of em, but only drive one. What purpose do those spare rooms in your house have? You heat and cool them, but no one uses them. Or stuff like, "Can't you just shop at Wally World and be content?"

The answer rings truer in my ears with every passing day. Those things are actually nothing without me. The cars can't drive themselves, the clothes don't wear themselves. I make them what they are. I turn them from inanimate objects, to useful things. But only when I chose to do so. Thus realizing I am extremely absurd.

Originally posted by TerryMcGuire

Originally posted by NewAgeMan
Here is where my primary absurdity began..





Fresh absurdities, you are sure to find amusing, coming soon...

Man, heres a song for you. Shiela Chandra

edit on 14-10-2011 by TerryMcGuire because: (no reason given)

In truth I was very lonesome, after my parents separated and my mom, a mental health nurse and counsellor/therapist, moved down to Toronto, and I was left in a vacuum of love, to do nothing but ring the bell on Sundays and collect my cigarette allowance (not than I blame my Dad who had his own share of problems to deal with), skip school and "party" in a desparate attempt to get the missing love by being "popular" and a "rebel" (in that case, without a cause!).

But you see, the absurd irony of it all, is that here I still am ringing the proverbial bell for all with ears to hear, perhaps still afraid to "go to church", the true meaning of which means "a called out assembly" (could be a dancing party?), and now it's time for a "celebratory cigarette".. :

So you see, I am still absurd, but in a good way now. Thank you for listening and for allowing me to share my absurdity with you all.

ah.. God Bless!

Bob
(that was my true name, before all hell broke loose and I bolted, in desperate search of the missing love in the world).

reply to post by cloudwatcher


Now that your heart's in the right place, it's all added back to you, to do with as you will (11 cars may be just a tad overboard, but that's not for me to judge!).

We can't and need not be "rid" of anything however, because it's all reintegrated in our absursity come to light, and our choice to be ourselves as we are, or at the very least as we are choosing to be, thereafter authentically inauthentic, which might include the need for 11 cars, who knows, there's no should and shouldn't to this, only liberated love to be as we are, not as we were, and most especially who we are becoming, based upon our new perspective in the unlimited domain of freedom from which we can freely choose to simply be ourselves or whoever it is we truly wish to be and to become in our heart of hearts because "where your heart is, there will your treasure be also."

God made our spirit with wings to fly in the spacious firmament of love and freedom. How pitiful it would be then (how absurd) if we were to lop off our wings by our own hand and suffer ourselves to crawl like vermin upon the earth.
~ Khalil Gibran, from "The Prophet"

P.S. No worries for anyone who might be getting uncomfortable with the "God-talk".

It's nothing to be talked about anyway. It can only be lived.

Originally posted by cloudwatcher
That was a really brave thing you did there. In a group of "You're your own god" peeps, to stand up and declare that you know better...well that just makes me wanna dance all the more.

They said, bottom line, that "life" is absurd and meaningless, "but" it's absurd and meaningless that it's absurd and meaningless, and therefore nothing to get all worked up over, and then we die.

That's somewhat amuzing, when you really come to think of it... but my reply to this is basically

To the contrary, life is meaningful, and it means everything that it means everything and then we live again!

However, since we cannot know with absolute certainty precisely what it all means, and are left to explore this mystery in the space of absolute freedom (unconditioned ground of being), then

I think that both things might and MUST be true, at the same time (said like Forrest Gump).

Both absurd and not absurd, simulataneously, but what's absurd, absurdly, once realized or recognized, seems to bootsrap us straight to heaven if such a thing were possible, from the uknown or ignorant and absurd, into the known uknown, wihch although an unfathomable mystery is indeed the only thing left that is worth exploring, because it's the only real and authentic thing that is possible, and it needn't of course be even the least bit extraordinary either, since the sacred resides equally in the mundane, as with the exalted, and that too is amuzing, but in this case, not absurd.

Originally posted by NewAgeMan
reply to post by 74Templar

 

First of all, I'd like to say that I'm glad you returned and continued from your last post so quickly, I might have thougt you'd died or something, and second, and more importantly, man you GROK!

Thank you 74Templar, for your contribution to this thread, but aside from that, thanks for just being "out there" loike a candle in the wind. And thank you lastly, to allowing our mutual flames to shine ever brighter, in whatever way no matter how great or small it really doesn't matter, it's enough to start something, or I should say to remember something REALLY important that we'd almost forgot.

Phew!

That was CLOSE!

LOL, still around, weekends here in Aust is family time usually, another thing I learned quickly about what is most important in this generally off-balance world, and my girls top that list. Normally I go back to work Mondays for a bit of a rest, lol.
I just keep putting the message out there for people, that change is now, and change is you. Like others I have many nice possesions I went through in my "me" phase (actually I am still paying a lot of them off). Now it seems I am comfortable, where I need to be in life and focused on what's important, which is helping the world get back on track. It's like trying to move a mountain when you are an ant somedays, but I refuse to believe this world isn't worth making better, as are the people in it. It just takes not being afraid of a little backlash. Most people I have broached the subject with get angry at first, then come back hours or even days later with a clearer mind as to what it is needs fixing, both within themselves or the world. Thats when the real wave begins.
Just keep spreading that message, even if you get a stony silence or brick wall, it gets through everntually. People generally don't want to be miserable, they want to be happy little souls, it just takes someone to show them that sometimes.
Keep spreading that message

PS: I forgot to ask, "How are you today brother?"

reply to post by 74Templar

Today I seem to be in mourning over my absurdity, as a result of the work I've been doing in relation to this thread. It's heavy lifting sometimes, these things, and we generally cannot have them all dissolve at once, there's still a lot of pain there, which cannot be denied.

Perhaps later in this thread I'll tell you about my mom, who I miss dearly, and who's passing 12 years ago affected me by far more than I'd previously realized, until now.

So I'm both happy, at times, and very sad and in deep morning at others. And she's there, her love is there (here), but I've missed her so much and loved her so much, such a courageous woman. Perhaps later in this thread I'll tell you about her, she was quite extraordinary, and became a real saint in the latter part of her life. Her name was Kay. I loved (love) her very much.

You asked!

Originally posted by NewAgeMan
reply to post by 74Templar

 

Today I seem to be in mourning over my absurdity, as a result of the work I've been doing in relation to this thread. It's heavy lifting sometimes, these things, and we generally cannot have them all dissolve at once, there's still a lot of pain there, which cannot be denied.

Perhaps later in this thread I'll tell you about my mom, who I miss dearly, and who's passing 12 years ago affected me by far more than I'd previously realized, until now.

So I'm both happy, at times, and very sad and in deep morning at others. And she's there, her love is there (here), but I've missed her so much and loved her so much, such a courageous woman. Perhaps later in this thread I'll tell you about her, she was quite extraordinary, and became a real saint in the latter part of her life. Her name was Kay. I loved (love) her very much.

You asked!

edit on 15-10-2011 by NewAgeMan because: (no reason given)

I did ask, and a response like that is not out of the ordinary, nor is it anything less than human. I too have lost loved ones and friends over the years, and somedays that brings me down to a melancholy. I combat this by remembering the good things they shared with me and taught me, and by that memory alone, their passing, while saddening, was a part of life, an inevitable part. People deal with death in different ways, and like life and learning it is often a personal road, one which no other person will fully understand no matter how they say they do. Perhaps all I can suggest is go out and do one random act of kindness. It doesn't have to be front page news staggering, but much in the same way someone out to get you belittles your beliefs to gain power over you, helping someone out you have no reason to help empowers you both. Consider it a spiritual chocolate hit
Hope this helps somewhat

Originally posted by shimmeringsilver73

Originally posted by NewAgeMan
Ah, would anyone like to share an absurdity of their own, and by "absurdity" I don't mean anything "bad", but something, perhaps an incivility, or not, which arose from a complete and utter miconception and misunderstanding on your part, because you were operating from the whole wrong paradigm, based on who you presumed yourself to be, or another to be, in relation to you.

I don't want to hog the floor. It's not all about me after all, I'm not THAT special.

Anyone..?

You really want to know?

I reference your original post and insert the following after every paragraph...

Ditto from me

Ditto from me

Ditto from me

Ditto and more ditto - and then yes again! Ditto!

I had stars in my eyes as a child – I dreamt of the sheer vastness of the universe, all the incomprehensible possibilities and the multitude of fascinating life-paths available to me.

At age 6 I was to become an astronaut – at age 7 I wanted to be the first president to make the planting of trees compulsory. At age 8 I was about to run off to India and study Ayurvedic Medicine. Between the ages of 9 and 14 I alternated between the ideas of growing up to be a biologist, a physicist, a paranormal investigator, a writer, a painter, a farmer, a doctor, a philosopher or a veterinary surgeon. But slowly the ideas of space-exploration and the possibilities of finding extra-terrestrial life cemented within me the roots of an overwhelming and ever-growing love for astronomy.

My father – a stern and uncompromising intellectual and academic chastised me for my interests in astronomy... he told me that I needed to focus on the computer-industry as a couple of degrees in this field would afford me the best opportunities and the most comfortable life – a life I could not hope to achieve as a poor and most-likely unemployed astronomer.

And so I listened. I diligently studied. Gained a bachelors in Information Technology. Wrote Java programmes and designed websites from 8 to 5 until my eyes blurred whilst my astronomy knowledge gained dust in the dark recesses of my mind, my telescope hidden away lest my heart should break if I saw it, and my every-night outdoor trips becoming more sporadic until these also stopped completely. Yes, I am absurd.

Then – when I was given an opportunity to further my studies this year, my now dearly-departed father’s voice came floating to me across space and time, and I chose to continue my studies in Information Technology. My belief being that I am now too old and too out of touch to pursue my love for Astronomy. Here too – I was absurd.

And thus I sat this year – each day – trying to eke out a living in an industry that was not as favourable to me as my father had predicted – and studying a subject that had never carried any real interest or passion or made my eyes sparkle in anticipation.

It is now one o' clock on a Sunday morning and there are three days to go to my first examination – the stacks of revision work are piled up around me. And I feel completely apathetic, bored, disinterested – my continual habit of procrastination is just reinforcing itself again and again and again... Instead of my much-needed revision I am listening to “Ever so lonely” by Sheila Chandra, and scouring the boards of a conspiracy theory website for some glimmer of interest and some point for discussion as a complete and hopeless ATS addict... yes – I am absurd.

I am absurd for having dreamt the biggest dreams and not realizing any of them. I am absurd for following the desires of my misguided “well-wishers” – even though these desires were not my own. I am absurd for not believing in my own light. I am absurd for once again not taking the road less travelled, even though that road was the most beguiling. I am absurd for having become an automaton carrying out the most basic of human functions – too bored with life to flourish and too dependent on the system to do more than survive.

Your thread was amazing and every one of your posts a beautiful and inspiring read. I suppose we are all absurd creatures in one way or the other - and most of us have also missed the plot somewhere. S+F

Very courageous of you friend, thanks for sharing (of course we all don't have to do this, since it's always a variatoin of the same damn story).

I presume that you have not lost your love of astronomy?



Hey, you don't have to of course, but could you share some of your love with us, even if only in a few of your favorite pics or factoids.. it would cheer us all up I think to see that, and marvel at it, this larger unfathomable mystery that is the whole cosmos we intrinsically inhabit, or, if life is utterly meaningless and absurd, bring us to dispair, either way JK. It can't be anything to be afraid of, the vastness of the cosmos we live in, could it? ..

I don't see how that could be

Originally posted by cloudwatcher
reply to post by NewAgeMan

 

TextMaybe "she" didn't get the special gift (dollhouse?) she was promised for Christmas as a little girl or something equally as absurd, hey anything's possible!

"She" has always gotten what she wants. Which is probably why she is even more absurd than the rest.

Didn't play with dollhouses...no. Made dirt roads in the front yard and rode her brothers Tonka dumptruck around on them. Maybe she secretly wanted her brothers toys!!!

edit on 10/25/2010 by cloudwatcher because: forgot the little quote box

I had to reply to this as my two daughters are currently in the backyard. One's riding an ATV round the backyard, the other is playing with Transformers in the dirt. My youngest daughter's favourite current toy is a 4 storey car garage, complete with a box full of matchbox cars. I know this coz it's spread like a nuclear attack over the lounge room most days.
Kids generally want what someone else has, I've never been able to explain this one, so you're not alone there

reply to post by 74Templar


I do that as a matter of course, and gave a couple of bucks to some local street brothers not 20 minutes ago if you must know, but yea, extending ourselves in love helps, and those tears they don't last very long!

Thanks for your kind sentiment, and the advice. I appreciate where it's coming from, but to be honest and please do not take this the wrong way at all, but everyone hates advice however well meaning it might be. You see if I go out now and give two dollars to the homeless guy, then I'm doing it because you told me to, and if things went wrong, say if he attacked me and robbed me or something, I might very well blame you! JK

I just don't want anyone to think that this is a "fixing" thread or a place to neccessarily try to solve the other guy's "problems" however well meaning our intensions.

it's like an additional load, when I'm working to lighten the one I'm already carrying, or I should say WAS carrying!

And just to clarify, that wasn't a harsh "don't tell me what to do" comeback, it's always a good thing to do, but when I do it now, it's it's own reward, and I always get a "glow" from it when I do, at some point down the line. I just like to see the look in their eyes, as we smile authentically at one another, as peers, friends, not with me as a charity giver to a homeless person. God how I used to hate and loath that part of myself, which would pat myself on the back while I did it.

Funny how sometimes you can start out with the whole wrong motives, and then be completely transformed in the process and in the end, what you starting doing for all the wrong reasons, you come to love to do, for all the right ones.

I know I am but what are you ?

Or

No you are.

No wait a minute.
How bout this one ?

So !

SnF my friend

Originally posted by 74Templar
My youngest daughter's favourite current toy is a 4 storey car garage, complete with a box full of matchbox cars. I know this coz it's spread like a nuclear attack over the lounge room most days.

I have only two responses, based on what we've been talking about in this thread, either

Oh my God, do you realize what you've done, to have gotten her such a toy! or

She's certain to be very successful!

Or maybe it's Mattel's fault, the toy maker, and their entire advertising campaign, oh where can we lay the "blame"?

reply to post by randyvs


Nice mustache.

Originally posted by NewAgeMan
reply to post by 74Templar

 

I do that as a matter of course, and gave a couple of bucks to some local street brothers not 20 minutes ago if you must know, but yea, extending ourselves in love helps, and those tears they don't last very long!

Thanks for your kind sentiment, and the advice. I appreciate where it's coming from, but to be honest and please do not take this the wrong way at all, but everyone hates advice however well meaning it might be. You see if I go out now and give two dollars to the homeless guy, then I'm doing it because you told me to, and if things went wrong, say if he attacked me and robbed me or something, I might very well blame you! JK

I just don't want anyone to think that this is a "fixing" thread or a place to neccessarily try to solve the other guy's "problems" however well meaning our intensions.

it's like an additional load, when I'm working to lighten the one I'm already carrying, or I should say WAS carrying!

And just to clarify, that wasn't a harsh "don't tell me what to do" comeback, it's always a good thing to do, but when I do it now, it's it's own reward, and I always get a "glow" from it when I do, at some point down the line. I just like to see the look in their eyes, as we smile authentically at one another, as peers, friends, not with me as a charity giver to a homeless person. God how I used to hate and loath that part of myself, which would pat myself on the back while I did it.

Funny how sometimes you can start out with the whole wrong motives, and then be completely transformed in the process and in the end, what you starting doing for all the wrong reasons, you come to love to do, for all the right ones.

I do understand what you mean by that, paying it forward should be something you do without prompting or advice. So I'll rephrase. In times of crisis that is my answer, to help others. Not neccessarily for everyone, and I completely understand your POV in this, but to clarify, something more to digest than actually act on.
It's also funny you mentioned the "fakeness" in some people's want to help others. It's like people do things for their own gratification rather than the sheer thrill of genuinely helping someone just because you can. Personally it makes a little sad to see it, and even sadder the person in question thinks no one will notice....
Today I helped someone who was struggling with something into their car. Why? I really don't know, it just seemed like the thing to do at that moment, and of course as soon as I did, others obviously felt bad and started to join in. I could have screamed at that point at them all, for being so fake, so self-gratifying. Even the guy I helped seemed a bit shocked at first, then realised I wasn't there to harm him, but wanted to help just for the sake of it. The smile was contagious, the spirit lifted as a result.
So to recap, I understand your POV in this, and no offense was taken. Indeed it would seem I have learned a little from this line of conversation
I must go now, but not because of anything stated here, both my girls have their bikes out now and without a traffic warden it often turns into bumper cars at 30mph, which is rarely a good ending...
I shall return, keep spreading the word in the meantime...

Peace

Originally posted by ImmortalThought
reply to post by NewAgeMan

 

They say, you say? I say, you don't say. If he said what I said, then what he said was twice said and no longer needed to be said. Or were you just blindly lead?

I'm sorry "they" was "Khalil Gibran" from the book "The Prophet", i ought to have quoted, instead of attributing it to the notorious, if not infamous "they" instead. My apologies.

And when we commiserate with our neighbor, sometimes, by some miracle, he only ends up commiserating in turn, with us, and together we lift away one another's burdens quite literally in the twinkling of an eye.

Wow for a minute I thought you were writing to me...
I'm a 42year old women that wasted her youth partyng working in bars and all around looking for acceptance...
Married twice with two children...It took alot of heart ache to wake me up...
After my last divorce I became a LPN....5years later (right now) I am working on my RN and achieving high grades...So its never to late...Trust me if you knew then ,younger me, you could not believe I am the same person...I like older Teresa Much better...

Originally posted by NewAgeMan

Originally posted by 74Templar
My youngest daughter's favourite current toy is a 4 storey car garage, complete with a box full of matchbox cars. I know this coz it's spread like a nuclear attack over the lounge room most days.

I have only two responses, based on what we've been talking about in this thread, either

Oh my God, do you realize what you've done, to have gotten her such a toy! or

She's certain to be very successful!

Or maybe it's Mattel's fault, the toy maker, and their entire advertising campaign, oh where can we lay the "blame"?

edit on 15-10-2011 by NewAgeMan because: typo

Either argument is absurd.... HAHAHAHA!!!! JKs of course. Actually one of my great failings (or perhaps strengths) is I don't like to say no to my kids, and generally spoil them to a degree. I guess I use the excuse I didn't have much as a young kid (not the truth), but the reality is the toy was a $2 special at a garage sale and will most likely be in the shed in a few weeks, or given to another kid when my kids become bored with it. Luckily, three out of five of my neighbours volunteer for local charities (along with myself), so the ol' "one mans trash is anothers treasure" rings true in our street often. Besides, the kids that end up with these hand me downs sometimes are true people in need, so to pay it forward in a simple way always puts a smile (and their) face.

Peace

I'm bumping this sucker. Truly an amazing thread IMO. With some outstanding responses.

reply to post by 74Templar


Funny how life is like this. Blondes wanna be brunettes. Brunettes wanna be blondes etc.
I was never the girly type. I wear my camouflage with pride!

here's what I'm sure some of you might be thinking at this point..

"What is the meaning here of "absurd", just what the hell is NAM talking about anyway, and if I don't know what's true and what's absolutely true, and can't even know with absolute certainty and cannot begin to fathom the depths even of my own SELF, if I CAN'T possibly know even to begin with (mystery of absolute uncertainty) then just WTF am I supposed to do with this info (forgive my language), screw this, I HATE THIS GUY and this whole damn thread, what a loser he must be, and what a crybaby he is, what a "momma's boy" who not three posts ago cried out "I want my mommy". Loser! Can't even get up out of bed some days just to earn a living". No I refuse to go along with this, this absurdity of a thread, and "love my neighbor as myself" Christian brainwashed nonsense just because everyone else thinks it's so "adorable". I hate people, some of them, starting with this wimp who although he seems to talk a good story, doesn't entirely measure up and falls short of this ever glorious ideal he asks us all to embrace as if he were himself somehow it's embodiment in his pathetic need for love as a thwarted expectation in his own life, what a wimp, what a hypocrite! I hate sometimes, even hate myself, that I wasn't the ultimate hero in my own life's drama, and I hate this guy in particular for bringing it to my full awareness. How dare he!"

To you I say, I understand your frustration completely, believe me. You are not alone.