What is currently on your mind?

[timothyu]

Ohh, so sorry to hear that. A much much worse vacuum than here

 

[RileyG]

Still work, that's all I've got left now.
Keeps my mind busy after the loss of my wife last month.

May God bless you in his love and bring you comfort.

 

[MehGuy]

Oh no, George Wendt who played Norm on Cheers passed away.

Sadly I won't be surprised if most of the cast passes away within the next 10 years. We lost Kirsty Alley a few years ago.

 

[timothyu]

I thought it was thunder at first but it was a resounding NORM that rolled across the sky. Guess he made it in.

 

[Sif]

George Wendt, October 17, 1948 - May 20, 2025

 

[MehGuy]

Sometimes I wonder why I care so much about the nature of love, and the perfect way to feel/express it.

Most likely growing up in a Christian environment where the concept of love was highly valued. Yet.. personally never really understanding it. I guess it is more of a subjective/philosophical question. As an atheist I probably shouldn't be still believing in a concept of perfect/correct love. Yet.. my mind never seems to be able to move on from this question. It often leaves me feeling severely depressed.

 

[Paidiske]

I think love is situational. It's always between real people, in their real circumstances, and those are seldom perfect or ideal.

 

[MehGuy]

I think love is situational. It's always between real people, in their real circumstances, and those are seldom perfect or ideal.

Yeah, I guess my mind is just stuck in a loop searching for a concept of love that doesn't exist. Even then, I worry about expressing the best possible love given the circumstances. Whenever I do try to express love I always feel like a piece of crap. Or I just feel nothing, that I am just going through the motions and not actually feeling love, then I feel like crap because of that.

Regardless.. this loop really ruined my weekend. Just trying to emotionally calm down right now.

 

[Paidiske]

I'm sure you've heard the idea that love isn't really a feeling. To love is to act for the good of the other, regardless of what you're feeling.

I hope your week improves from here!

 

[Sam91]

What's on my mind? I'm wondering if we're entering the end days or will soon. I haven't been keeping track of the news but it's awful, society is awful. I've wondered about it a bit lately and then at church today there were a couple things mentioned which kind of made it prominent again in my musings.

I've never bothered to dive into eschatology much as it's fruitless to my walk to do so and is only a distraction. I just hope I'm not caught sleeping. I wonder what Jesus meant by that.

But anyway, that's one thing on my mind. Night night

Oh the other thing on my mind is wondering if I should even look at what is going on in the world or not. It would break my heart to look, but if I knew I would be able to pray for those suffering. I'm wondering if I'm being remiss not doing so, but i empathise with even plants. I feel so despondent at just the snippets I've seen about what's going on in Palestine. The suffering seems so intense.

 

[Sif]

Why is the media (liberal and conservative) not covering this?

 

[Paidiske]

Oh, it's not battle, it's sport. A very time-honoured tradition; we see the evidence in medieval manuscripts.

What's on my mind is how painful moving house is. And how much decluttering and sorting I have to do, before we even get to the packing...

 

[Sif]

Oh, it's not battle, it's sport. A very time-honoured tradition; we see the evidence in medieval manuscripts.

View attachment 366482

Look, that rabbit's got a vicious streak a mile wide! It's a killer! - Tim the Enchanter

 

[timothyu]

Why is the media (liberal and conservative) not covering this?

I know, right?

 

[MehGuy]

I'm sure you've heard the idea that love isn't really a feeling. To love is to act for the good of the other, regardless of what you're feeling.

I hope your week improves from here!

Yeah. Just feels empty, almost phony to me. I have tried it before, but the lack of incentive leaves me giving up.

I have been toying with the idea of love being based on the intellect. Trying to train my mind to feel positive/romantic notions regarding this. I can feel some faint spark from this.

I am aware that adding emotions to rational love understandably conjures up fears of it being tainted, but I also think to be rational is to be pragmatic. You need an emotional incentive to engage in love long term.

Growing up in a highly Christian family, I was drowned in empathetic love, but intellectual love often took the back seat. Especially when it threatened the faith. Which I feel really hurt me.

I have practiced this rational form of love before, and it's one of the rare times when engaging in love doesn't make me feel disgusted. Still.. this idea of 'rational love' is crude and undeveloped in my mind. Hopefully I can expand this in the future.

Rational love isn't always "nice".. but it strives for honesty and wanting to try its best to work with the world for how it is. Different than the 'extreme empathy' idea of love we see in both many Christian and secular (maybe even worse in those circles) today.

 

[Tuur]

I know, right?

Jokes aside., that's a remarkable photo. Why isn't the hog upset that a racoon is on its back?

 

[Tuur]

In no particular order:

Two local accidents involving those golf-cart things and wildlife jumping into them during operation. One, with a deer, sent the driver to ICU for a time. The other resulted in a fatality. The latter is sketchy and may have involved another animal. Neither made the news.

Red ochre may have been used as prehistoric sun screen. Seriously.

Whether the lag in the movement of corona discharge around a vibrating AC conductor can induce another current on the wire.

The best way to handle an old story idea I happened to remember.

 

[Paidiske]

I do think that ultimately we can't separate our rational mind from our emotions; cognitively they are too inextricably linked.

 

[MehGuy]

I do think that ultimately we can't separate our rational mind from our emotions; cognitively they are too inextricably linked.

Yeah, I understand.

While they cannot be truly seperated, one still has a great degree of control on how they let emotions influence them.

There has to be a better way other than people engaging in extreme empathy and getting emotionally overloaded with other people's pain. A behavior that I sadly see uncritically celebrated and encouraged by many people in society.

There is a great deal between that, that we can control and socially encourage; instead of that kind (and in many cases) of selfish behavior.

 

[Sif]

This Poem by Charles Bukowski:

There is enough treachery, hatred violence absurdity in the average
human being to supply any given army on any given day

and the best at murder are those who preach against it
and the best at hate are those who preach love
and the best at war finally are those who preach peace

those who preach god, need god
those who preach peace do not have peace
those who preach peace do not have love

beware the preachers
beware the knowers
beware those who are always reading books
beware those who either detest poverty
or are proud of it
beware those quick to praise
for they need praise in return
beware those who are quick to censor
they are afraid of what they do not know
beware those who seek constant crowds for
they are nothing alone
beware the average man the average woman
beware their love, their love is average
seeks average

but there is genius in their hatred
there is enough genius in their hatred to kill you
to kill anybody
not wanting solitude
not understanding solitude
they will attempt to destroy anything
that differs from their own
not being able to create art
they will not understand art
they will consider their failure as creators
only as a failure of the world
not being able to love fully
they will believe your love incomplete
and then they will hate you
and their hatred will be perfect

like a shining diamond
like a knife
like a mountain
like a tiger
like hemlock
their finest art​