Peanut gallery for Foxhole thread

[David B]

If anyone wants to comment.

Maybe if some little topics take off we (by which I mean someone) can split the peanut gallery appropriately. Or not - it doesn't matter.

David.

[justme]

I want to comment. I want to say something profound that makes sence of all the wrongness in the world. Of all that continues to be wrong as those who strive to be right, correct and honorable are slowly withdrawn from us by the cruelty of our own mortality.

Where do you go when you realize that things of importance loose every bit of imporatce when time has been cut short? Where do you go when all these high browed questions loose their priority and the one most crucial question stands starkb and foeboding before us. The question of our personhood.

Sorry for being so dark but I have tears in my eyes for the injustice of all of this and for a person I know so little about and would dearly like to in the time remaining.

[David B]

Justme, I find myself, perhaps by accident as much as design, focussing on the little good things in life.

These are going to be very random thoughts, I fear - I'm thinking now of the lyrics of a song by an early - and before drink, drugs and excess took their toll, were a great band, IMV.

The quote -

"If you see black
You can't look back
You can't look front
You cannot face tomorrow "

I'm facing front

More random beloved quotes arise unbidden from SF music history.

'Wake up to find out that you are the eyes of the world...'

And the loopy, in the best sense of the word

'Once in a while you get shown the light
!n the strangest of places if you look at it right'

Truth in psychedelic Rock'n'Roll.

But that is a side track - I was talking on the phone to a very old friend this morning, I was friendly with her older siblings while she coped with a wild adolescence, her own practical problems, and the general nuttiness - sometimes full blown psychosis - of he older siblings. Sharp people, with many virtues, but problems.

She left school at 15, wanted to go back, needed to pass a maths exam to get to uni, which I helped her out with, she has degree in Russian, Computer Geek husband - lovely chap with Aspergers tendencies we are all aware of, and three lovely kids.

She told me how happy she was to find me alive and on form.

Hey - that'll do

David

[Valheru]

Years ago while I was in between jobs, I was asked by my gf-at-the-time's family to act as a full-time day nurse to her mother, who was dying of breast cancer. I was barely into my twenties and it was a life-altering time.

The worst aspect of it was that she was spaced out on morphine for months, and was never given the opportunity to work through the emotional phases of dying. I dont have much in the way of platitudes and won't pretend that you need'em either - you know the score old boy. That said, I am glad you still got yer wits about you. And stay away from the poppy sauce if you can, it fucks you up and makes you a zombie. not a good way to go. Rather get blasted on weed.

Just as long as you had a good innings, mate.
I will miss you when you're gone - but keep a seat warm for the rest of us.

Oh, and flip that beardy wanker upstairs a bird for me as well will ya.

[mood2]

I don't know if you ever saw playwright Dennis Potter's amazing last interview, but your post reminded me of it. Here's a clip (the whole interview is googleable) http://www.theguardian.com/news/video/2 ... nis.potter

[Cath B]

[quote=""mood2""]I don't know if you ever saw playwright Dennis Potter's amazing last interview, but your post reminded me of it. Here's a clip (the whole interview is googleable) http://www.theguardian.com/news/video/2 ... nis.potter[/quote]

I've been thinking about that interview quite a bit recently.

I just checked Dennis Potter's wiki page and see that it was broadcast nearly twenty years ago: this astonished me.

I can't watch your clip just now because it would compete with David's TV watching (football results!).

[David B]

By the way, if I appear to have found God either the cancer will have hit my brain pretty hard, or I will have made it through to April.

David

[DMB]

Here's one from Christopher Hitchens talking about his cancer.

http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xn1p9k ... _lifestyle

[Peanut]

~ Come to the Edge ~

Come to the edge.

- - We might fall.

Come to the edge.

- - It’s too high!

Come to the edge.

And they came,

... and he pushed.

And they..... flew.


Christopher Logue

I`m not spiritual, but I saw that performed one time and liked it.

[DMB]

David, what is your favourite type of Lindor -- black, red, gold or white?

[Shadowfox]

When the going gets tough, the tough get chocolate!

David, your courage in facing death inspires me to hope I will have the same courage, as my time is short, but dunno how short. Meanwhile I've taken The Pledge: to enjoy each and every moment of each and every day. No. Matter. What.

And I will be following your foxhole talk right along. Thanks for sharing.

[David B]

[quote=""DMB""]David, what is your favourite type of Lindor -- black, red, gold or white?[/quote]

Hey, that is a tough one - hard to sort out the one I had last from the one I have next.

I suppose I discovered it over 30 years ago in red form, so I think that is the one I know best. And I've never been much of a white chocolate fan.

David

[Jobar]

Next to our deeper fears
We stand surrounded by
Million years.
-Yes

what an interesting time I've had to spend my 64 years and counting.

My paternal grandfather died back in 1967; in his lifetime, he went from doing most of the work on his farm with animal and human muscle, to seeing men preparing to land on the moon.

I often wished I had been old enough to talk to him before he died about the mighty changes he lived through, and to appreciate his observations.

I don't know if you and I have seen such sea changes as did my grandfather and his generation, but we're still lucky to have gotten to live our lives at this pinnacle of human accomplishment and knowledge.

[Cath B]

[quote=""Valheru""]The worst aspect of it was that she was spaced out on morphine for months, and was never given the opportunity to work through the emotional phases of dying. I dont have much in the way of platitudes and won't pretend that you need'em either - you know the score old boy. That said, I am glad you still got yer wits about you. And stay away from the poppy sauce if you can, it fucks you up and makes you a zombie. not a good way to go. Rather get blasted on weed. [/quote]

Morphine is not without its benefits in some situations.

And doses can be fine-tuned.


(View video on YouTube)

[Cath B]

[quote=""Jobar""]Next to our deeper fears
We stand surrounded by
Million years.
-Yes

what an interesting time I've had to spend my 64 years and counting.

My paternal grandfather died back in 1967; in his lifetime, he went from doing most of the work on his farm with animal and human muscle, to seeing men preparing to land on the moon.

I often wished I had been old enough to talk to him before he died about the mighty changes he lived through, and to appreciate his observations.

I don't know if you and I have seen such sea changes as did my grandfather and his generation, but we're still lucky to have gotten to live our lives at this pinnacle of human accomplishment and knowledge.[/QUOTE]

My mother (and David's) was sometimes wont to reflect on the fact that she had, in her childhood, known relatives and others born in the 1850s and, in old age, known children born in the 21st century.

And to reflect on the different lives these two groups would have experienced.

[crazyfingers]

I hope that I could accept death as well. I once was told that something happens in the brain to make it less scary when times come. I don't know. I must admit that I don't know how much I can post in this thread despite that I care very much.

[Jobar]

(View video on YouTube)

Here's one of the wonders of our modern age which makes life in our time worthwhile; we can hear the marvelous secular sermons of Allan Watts, in his own voice, even though he died in 1973.

[Shadowfox]

The changes we have seen. My mom was born in 1900 and it's hard to imagine living thru the times she did - seeing the start of horseless carriages and the moon landing just for starters. I was born in 1935, the Great Depression, and what changes I have seen, the history I have lived through! How everything seems to be snowballing faster and faster, not just in science (what massive breakthroughs there) but in social concepts. And yet, how I can see that it is so true, the more things change, the more they stay the same.

[crazyfingers]

[quote=""Shadowfox""]The changes we have seen. My mom was born in 1900 and it's hard to imagine living thru the times she did - seeing the start of horseless carriages and the moon landing just for starters. I was born in 1935, the Great Depression, and what changes I have seen, the history I have lived through! How everything seems to be snowballing faster and faster, not just in science (what massive breakthroughs there) but in social concepts. And yet, how I can see that it is so true, the more things change, the more they stay the same.[/quote]

You're my parent's generation. My grandparents were all born in 1905-1906. My parents are from 1935. I'm 1961. My oldest kid is 13 and my youngest is 10. I look forward to hoping that things will be better for my kids but I don't know. The middle-class is becoming a shell of what it was and who-knows-what will be the impact of global climate change? Very slow and adaptable or swift and very disruptive? I can only hope that we prepare them to cope with what they will face and they will be happy. We adopted later in life. I hope to be around when they are in middle age and help and see how things will go for them. But I'll be getting pretty on in years by the time they get out of college, get careers which I hope that they like, and think about having their own families.

[Siddhi]

It is what it is.

And, you are doing it so very well.

[Peanut]

When my mother was dying (at home, with us) of brain cancer, she lost the power of coherent speech. She used to sing all the time, and make pithy (often catty) remarks about everything. Being unable to communicate was terribly frustrating for her and sad for us.
Only a very few times did the broken words somehow come together in a sentence that we understood.
One of the last such sentences, one of the last times she was able to sit on the front deck and watch a rosy finch on the feeder, was
"The bird is gone."
That's what we put on the cards for her memorial gathering.

[dug_down_deep]

Hey, David B. You're still here, and that's a good thing. So am I. In a moment we'll all be gone. I hope things are pleasant for you, and if not I hope you strive to make them so.

[sohy]

I've seen and taken care of a lot of dying folks. I've read a lot about the thoughts of the dying. One thing that stands out in my mind is that people with terminal illnesses hate it when people treat them as if they are already gone.

So, here's to David, who is very much alive! None of us know when we will be gone, so let's all enjoy what life we have for as long as we can.

Oh, and I don't think I'd avoid the morphine and Ativan if I reached the point where I needed it. Unless I go very quickly, I do want that nice buzz on my way out. Stoic I'm not.

[Shadowfox]

Isn't it comforting, David, to know you live in a country that has been and is being so good to you. I, too, am that lucky. Even tho folks here and other places do often denigrate my land (and yours too sometimes) I'm happy to be here in this time.

I've heard many my age and older wish this country was the same as in the days of FDR. :d unno: The Great Depression days? If that were so, I'd be homeless or dead. So no matter what the problems, we do have some very good reasons to be alive today.

[mood2]

A poop and a good day at The Ashes