Alfred Tennyson wrote:We are not now that strength which in old days
Moved earth and heaven, that which we are, we are;
One equal temper of heroic hearts,
Made weak by time and fate, but strong in will
To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield.
Alfred Tennyson wrote:We are not now that strength which in old days
Moved earth and heaven, that which we are, we are;
One equal temper of heroic hearts,
Made weak by time and fate, but strong in will
To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield.
SeaGypsy wrote:If the world had your clarity, wisdom, insight and money Rock- we might all be happy! (Never mind the droll humor lol!)
Alfred Tennyson wrote:We are not now that strength which in old days
Moved earth and heaven, that which we are, we are;
One equal temper of heroic hearts,
Made weak by time and fate, but strong in will
To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield.
SeaGypsy wrote:Besides I'm a damn good swimmer! Completely out of training I timed myself a couple of days ago- I swam 50 meters in 35 seconds, 2 seconds slower than at my peak at 15 years old. I can still run 8 minute miles all day at 46 years old- after many years of off and on smoking, drinking being pretty wild in my lifestyle. Lifeboat- I look for my family and some flotsam. Medical- I assume we're running out of it anyway so it's mostly who needs the most time to say goodbye!
Bollocks. I don't know what's wrong with you VM, but I have had my butt kicked in footraces by guys in their 60's & at picking vegetables by farm labourer women in their 80's. Constitution, attitude, diet, persistence, tolerance and stamina all contribute. We aren't all the same.vision-master wrote:SeaGypsy wrote:Besides I'm a damn good swimmer! Completely out of training I timed myself a couple of days ago- I swam 50 meters in 35 seconds, 2 seconds slower than at my peak at 15 years old. I can still run 8 minute miles all day at 46 years old- after many years of off and on smoking, drinking being pretty wild in my lifestyle. Lifeboat- I look for my family and some flotsam. Medical- I assume we're running out of it anyway so it's mostly who needs the most time to say goodbye!
Get back to us at age 56, then 66. By age 66 most likely your running day's will be a walk.
In 1983, the 61-year-old potato farmer won the inaugural Westfield Sydney to Melbourne Ultramarathon, a distance of 875 kilometres (544 mi). The race was run between what were then Australia's two largest Westfield shopping centres: Westfield Parramatta, in Sydney, and Westfield Doncaster, in Melbourne.[4] He ran at a slow loping pace and trailed the leaders for most of the first day, but by running while the others slept, he took the lead the first night and maintained it for the remainder of the race, eventually winning by ten hours.
Before running the race, he told the press that he had previously run for two to three days straight rounding up sheep in gumboots.[5] He claimed afterwards that during the race, he imagined that he was running after sheep and trying to outrun a storm. The Westfield run took him five days, 15 hours and four minutes,
Alfred Tennyson wrote:We are not now that strength which in old days
Moved earth and heaven, that which we are, we are;
One equal temper of heroic hearts,
Made weak by time and fate, but strong in will
To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield.
ROCKMAN wrote:Very interesting. But I'm not sure how one could make a logical choice without knowing which ones were Jews, Muslims, Yankees, Democrats, foreigners, etc. And most importantly, which ones aren't Texans.
One day, during our engagement something came up about money. I don’t recall what it was, but I had to give it some thought. I said so to Hana; then followed with: ‘I am somewhat selfish.’ Her response was ‘What?! That’s bad, that’s really really bad!’ I tried to explain to her that I have to be careful with my resources in order to survive, let alone help anyone else! She was stuck on the fact I had called myself ‘Selfish’. No self respecting Filipino would do that!
Selfish or Unselfish?
Finally, after our marriage, we got into discussion on this subject again. Her point of view had not changed 1 iota: “Selfishness is BAD (full stop)”.
After significant discussion I realized our understanding of the word is very different. Hana’s was black and white. You are either selfish or not selfish; no room for grey in this picture!
As a typical westerner in some respects my perspective is entirely different. Selfishness occurs on a sliding scale. Almost nobody is utterly one way or the other. In western psychology we have terms to describe the poles in this aspect of behaviour: narcissism, psychopathology, sociopathy at one end followed by altruism, self sacrifice on the other. If most people were in either polarity we would be living on a totally different planet.
So I try to argue it out.
From what I can tell it’s an absolute here: selfishness is bad. Like a religious principle; beyond question.
After much debate and attempts at explaining the complexity of the issue, I start to feel like I’m bashing my head against the wall. Then I kind of won the argument; almost by accident!
I said “Ok so the right way to be is utterly unselfish?”
“Yes of course!” Came the reply.
“Ok, so let’s say you are walking along with all of your money in your pocket, say 1000 pesos?”
“Yes; then?”
“Then you come across a really hungry beggar; being unselfish, you give him half?”
” No! Maybe 100, or 50, so he can eat!”
“Why? You are unselfish, well fed, yet he has nothing! Of course you will give half!”
“(silence)(slightly stunned expression)”
“Ok, now you have 500 because you are such a nice person; and here is another beggar…, of course now you only have 250!”
“But that’s too much! Just give them enough to eat something, that’s all!”
“But, no we are unselfish; now we have 250!”
“Another beggar; 125!”
“So do you get me? By unselfishly walking past and helping 3 beggars; you have reduced your capital from 1000 to 125 Pesos!”
I don’t think this qualifies as ‘Checkmate’ but ‘Stalemate’.
We can all afford to be somewhat generous some of the time. But one Filipino idea I don’t believe is that no good person has any selfishness about them at all.
It’s a fantasy and a fabrication.
True altruism is, unfortunately; more rare than true psychopathology.
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