Your Most Disturbing Realizations

[tonyb]

^^^^^
I doubt I'm alone in this increasing awareness of the temporary nature of all things. I'm always known that nothing lasts forever, that even the Earth itself didn't exist at one time, and that in some distant future it will cease to exist.

The more people you bury the harder it gets to deny your own mortality. I like preserving old stuff. I like to think that something of me will survive me. But those are just artifacts. No other person is obliged to accord those artifacts the sort of magic I ascribe to them.

On that cheery note ...

 

[Trenchfriend]

^^^^^
I doubt I'm alone in this increasing awareness of the temporary nature of all things. I'm always known that nothing lasts forever, that even the Earth itself didn't exist at one time, and that in some distant future it will cease to exist.

The more people you bury the harder it gets to deny your own mortality. I like preserving old stuff. I like to think that something of me will survive me. But those are just artifacts. No other person is obliged to accord those artifacts the sort of magic I ascribe to them.

On that cheery note ...

For example:
I'm 31 and I see absolutely no sence in it, to buy more and more novel-books and amass them in my home. For what? I got my nonficiton-books, which I like and use, again and again, like my two mechanical typewriters and thats it.
Otherwise, after going 30, I can surely begin to reject.

 

[Lean'n'mean]

" All those moments will be lost, in time....like....tears in rain,.............time to die."

 

[Trenchfriend]

" All those moments will be lost, in time....like....tears in rain,.............time to die."

Yep, highest moment of cinema!

But not the right movie for little kids, I think. Probably to scary and then these bombastic optics.

 

[LizzieMaine]

^^^^^
I doubt I'm alone in this increasing awareness of the temporary nature of all things. I'm always known that nothing lasts forever, that even the Earth itself didn't exist at one time, and that in some distant future it will cease to exist.

The more people you bury the harder it gets to deny your own mortality. I like preserving old stuff. I like to think that something of me will survive me. But those are just artifacts. No other person is obliged to accord those artifacts the sort of magic I ascribe to them.

On that cheery note ...

I find that when I'm watching movies or newsreels, or even looking at photos from the Era I find myself thinking "I wonder where that chair/ashtray/other random object in the scene is right now. It existed then, but in what form does it exist today?" I was reading an article about the Tehran Conference the other day, and there was a photo of FDR, Churchill, Stalin, and all their functionaries sitting around a table, and I kept thinking "what happened to that table? Somebody made it and it existed and there it is in the picture. But what happened next? Is it still sitting in a back room somewhere, or did it get busted up for firewood or just tossed into a junk pile?"

I've lived most of my life scavenging things other people have thrown away, and after I die most of them will be thrown away again. Kind of a sobering thought.

 

[Trenchfriend]

We special interested people are caught by romanticism. It's nothing more than that...

 

[jeanramar]

nice thread

 

[2jakes]

I find that when I'm watching movies or newsreels, or even looking at photos from the Era I find myself thinking "I wonder where that chair/ashtray/other random object in the scene is right now. It existed then, but in what form does it exist today?" I was reading an article about the Tehran Conference the other day, and there was a photo of FDR, Churchill, Stalin, and all their functionaries sitting around a table, and I kept thinking "what happened to that table? Somebody made it and it existed and there it is in the picture. But what happened next? Is it still sitting in a back room somewhere, or did it get busted up for firewood or just tossed into a junk pile?"

I've lived most of my life scavenging things other people have thrown away, and after I die most of them will be thrown away again. Kind of a sobering thought.

I catch myself doing that with old movies & at times, I will stop a film, go to the
internet & see how many actors are still around.
I did that with “It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad, World”. All gone!

I also reflect on my ’39 & ’46 vehicles with the thought that I am merely
a care-taker until someone with the same interests comes along in the future.

I’m seriously thinking of writing a message of some kind inside the metal
somewhere to be discovered in the future.

Not sure what I want to tell them....any ideas Lizzie ?

 

[Inkstainedwretch]

I've been asked if I'd like to have a tree planted at my gravesite, and if so, what kind? My answer is: Even if that tree lives for centuries, someday it will die and I'll still be dead. Eventually the entire family that constitutes trees will be gone and replaced by something else and I'll still be dead. Life on earth will disappear, the sun will go nova, the universe will collapse to a point of infinite tininess and cease to exist as such and I'll be dead for every bit of it. So a tree on my grave isn't going to help much.

 

[LizzieMaine]

I’m seriously thinking of writing a message of some kind inside the metal
somewhere to be discovered in the future.

Not sure what I want to tell them....any ideas Lizzie ?

"IS THIS TRIP REALLY NECESSARY?"

 

[2jakes]

"IS THIS TRIP REALLY NECESSARY?"

That’s funny, I like it!
Thanks Lizzie, you made me laugh!

 

[LizzieMaine]

I've been asked if I'd like to have a tree planted at my gravesite, and if so, what kind? My answer is: Even if that tree lives for centuries, someday it will die and I'll still be dead. Eventually the entire family that constitutes trees will be gone and replaced by something else and I'll still be dead. Life on earth will disappear, the sun will go nova, the universe will collapse to a point of infinite tininess and cease to exist as such and I'll be dead for every bit of it. So a tree on my grave isn't going to help much.

At any point in history, the living have always been vastly outnumbered by the dead. We're scratching out our existence on a ball of compressed matter made up to a significiant extent of organic compounds that were once other living creatures. That hamburger you had for lunch was once a cow which was once grass which drew its nourishment from soil containing decayed organic molecules of past civilizations. That french fry under the seat of your car might once have been Julius Caesar.

 

[2jakes]

I’ve got Laurel & Hardy under the seat of my ’46 pick-up!

Don’t ask!

 

[tonyb]

I catch myself doing that with old movies & at times, I will stop a film, go to the
internet & see how many actors are still around.
I did that with “It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad, World”. All gone!

I also reflect on my ’39 & ’46 vehicles with the thought that I am merely
a care-taker until someone with the same interests comes along in the future.

I’m seriously thinking of writing a message of some kind inside the metal
somewhere to be discovered in the future.

Not sure what I want to tell them....any ideas Lizzie ?

Carl Reiner is still with us, I do believe.

More than any other movie I can think of, IAMMMMW has me seeing the world (literally --how the physical world appeared through my eyes) as it appeared in my early years. The cars, the architecture, the clothing.

And then there's the types of humor and cultural norms. The movie is very much of the period it was made.

 

[Fading Fast]

There are things you care about that you should care about, things you care about that shouldn't, things you should care about but don't and things you shouldn't care about and don't.

I have no idea which category this falls into, but that I'll be dead and have left almost no mark - and 5, 10 and, for sure, 50 years out will be completely forgotten - means absolutely nothing to me. It isn't that I've convinced myself not to care, I simply don't care. I've never cared about that - not as a kid, a young man or, now, as a middle aged man - I simply don't care.

I care deeply about the life I lead, the friends I have, the morals I try to uphold and the values I believe in, but when I'm dead, well, the world will get along fine without me - it isn't something I worry about at all. My life has no meaning outside of what it means to me and those around me when I'm alive - got it, check.

I sincerely respect that "leaving a mark," "being remembered," "having made a difference," having some memorial, stone, plaque or whatever to commemorate one's existence is very important to many people - I get why one would think that way - and support any honest effort to pursue those ideals. They just all mean nothing to me personally - I'm not against them for others, at all, I just simply don't feel it for myself and it's not a stance I "thought" or "reasoned" my way to, I'm just hardwired that way.

 

[Trenchfriend]

In the end, our life is the market-economy. It's really important, that woman are carrying shopping-bags, men are carrying shopping-bags, kids are carrying shopping-bags and better, that even shopping-bags are carrying shopping-bags.

 

[tonyb]

Cracking the code of time itself is the big trick.

I'm not particularly well versed in physics or philosophy, so I'll spare you all any ill-informed ramblings on the matter.

Still, I suspect that much of what lives in human imagination could be actualized.

 

[Lean'n'mean]

It's really important, that woman are carrying bags, men are carrying bags, kids are carrying bags and better, that even bags are carrying bags.

Louis Vuitton ?

 

[Trenchfriend]

Louis Vuitton ?

I meant shopping-bags.

 

[tonyb]

There are things you care about that you should care about, things you care about that shouldn't, things you should care about but don't and things you shouldn't care about and don't.

I have no idea which category this falls into, but that I'll be dead and have left almost no mark - and 5, 10 and, for sure, 50 years out will be completely forgotten - means absolutely nothing to me. It isn't that I've convinced myself not to care, I simply don't care. I've never cared about that - not as a kid, a young man or, now, as a middle aged man - I simply don't care.

I care deeply about the life I lead, the friends I have, the morals I try to uphold and the values I believe in, but when I'm dead, well, the world will get along fine without me - it isn't something I worry about at all. My life has no meaning outside of what it means to me and those around me when I'm alive - got it, check.

I sincerely respect that "leaving a mark," "being remembered," "having made a difference," having some memorial, stone, plaque or whatever to commemorate one's existence is very important to many people - I get why one would think that way - and support any honest effort to pursue those ideals. They just all mean nothing to me personally - I'm not against them for others, at all, I just simply don't feel it for myself and it's not a stance I "thought" or "reasoned" my way to, I'm just hardwired that way.

I am drawn to cemeteries. The place where my natural father is buried, the graveyard behind a country Catholic church, tells the story of much of my genetic stock. The older graves there date from the late 1800s, and are marked with stones engraved in German. Little markers tell of those stillborn or dead in infancy.

It's endlessly fascinating.