| Topic: |
Religions > Atheism |
| User: |
"V" |
| Date: |
13 Feb 2007 04:22:05 PM |
| Object: |
Our surroundings can and do have an impact on us (OT) |
A fellow on a list once asked for advice on how to become happy and
content while he lived in a small apartment located in the center of
congested, expensive, stressful and unhealthy city. He wanted to
divorce himself from the notion that happiness should coincide with
his living conditions. I agreed with him that we can work on being
happy and content wherever we live irrespective of our surroundings.
But I also had to say that our surroundings can and do have an impact
on us and we are not machines that can turn off stress and problems
that stem from our unhealthy living conditions and be immune to it
all.
Yes, we can work on being at peace even if someone is constantly
stabbing a knife in our side, but such a practice takes all our
energy. This is why many a contemplative become a 'renunciate' and
live like monks or nuns. They 'try' to remove much of life's worldly
irritants and distractions to focus on the spiritual path, so yes our
surroundings and lifestyle can matter to living a serene life.
Although some renunciates find that this life is not all it is cracked
up to be and they still must deal with 'personalities'' unless they
become a hermit.
I lived in L.A. for my first 35 years and them decided to relocate
with my family to a more affordable and safer local in 1989. The area
we moved to is the NE US. It is nothing flashy like L.A. or NY, but a
very relaxing area with clean air, low traffic and stress and much
wildlife such as deer, squirrels, wild turkeys and honking geese. I
enjoy relaxing on my hammock listening to owls hoot and woodpeckers
rat-a-tat-tat as I rock back and forth. Lots to do here if your into
nature - fishing, hunting, hiking, water and snow sports, etc. I live
with doctors, lawyers, successful business people in a really nice
area of town. The driving is generally uncongested and low key but
occasionally you get the hot head driver just like anyplace else - but
back in L.A., the peaceful driver was the exception and the hot head
honker was the rule.
Many a time as soon as the traffic light would change he or she was on
the horn with one hand as the other hand was used for the cell phone
or the Latte' and even with both hands tied up they would manage to
get the middle finger waving at you as they passed by. I live within
my means quite comfortably now. But, living within my means was always
an option irrespective of where I lived. The choice was always mine, I
just refused to do it in my prior life. We have been paying down our
house note and owe about $52,000 which is very affordable and do not
have to debt to live. If my current 2400 square foot, newish house was
transplanted to my old town of L.A. with the same type of
neighborhood, same size lot, it would sell for $2,000,000 or more -
yet we only paid about 9% of that in our area.
If I took the proceeds from the sale of our current house and decided
to buy a house in L.A., I could possibly buy a small house in Watts or
Compton. But from what I hear with house prices, I would not even be
able to afford one of these. We could probably afford to rent a 1 or 2
bedroom apartment, in a poor area of town, but that is it. I couldn't
live the lifestyle I enjoy today if I moved back to L.A. Where I live
compared to L.A. is quite different and they both have their pros and
cons. But it is good to be aware of the economic differences as well
as the differences in living standards and not blame oneself if you
choose to live in a tough area like L.A., NY, Tokyo or similar high
expense cities and have trouble making ends meet. If you choose to
live in such cities, then accept you will not have a high living
standard unless you make tons of money and are an exceptional earner.
Me, I am not an exceptional earner and accept this.
I once read how people living in Santa Barbara 'find their joy' in
just being able to live there. And do not get much joy from
exceptional homes, where a million dollars buys you next to nothing
and impressive homes are only for the very wealthy. So, if you choose
to live in a tough city and have trouble affording it, find your joy
with 'just' being able to live there. If I moved back to L.A. and
tried to reproduce my life through 'forcing things' I would surely run
into debt and eventually lose it all anyway since my lifestyle would
be artificial and not sustainable.
If I didn't have this theory of 'accepting and living within my
comfortable earning ability' on my side, I would call myself a failure
and an underearner for not earning the many hundreds of thousand of
dollars needed to reproduce and maintain the lifestyle I am enjoying
today. One should not beat oneself for not being able to live
comfortably in every environment under the sun. If we had no limits we
would not be humans...we would be gods. We all have limits, we all
come under natural law and are bound by certain capabilities. And the
successful person is one that accepts these limits and works to live
comfortably within them and does not get confused by enslaving
themselves to 'others' limits.
Take care,
V (Male)
Agnostic Freethinker
Practical Philosopher
AA#2
.
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| User: "Doc Smartass" |
|
| Title: Re: Our surroundings can and do have an impact on us (OT) |
13 Feb 2007 06:22:39 PM |
|
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"V" <vfr44@aol.com> wrote in news:1171405325.067873.184170
@h3g2000cwc.googlegroups.com:
Subject: Our surroundings can and do have an impact on us
....especially when we're in their way.
--
Doc Smartass, BAAWA Knight of Heckling
aa # 1939
AUTHORITARIANS ARE PERVERTS. Why?
--They consider themselves shepherds.
--They consider the rest of us sheep.
--Shepherds ***** sheep.
--Therefore AUTHORITARIANS ARE PERVERTS.
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| User: "dangdangdoodle" |
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| Title: Re: Our surroundings can and do have an impact on us (OT) |
13 Feb 2007 04:37:31 PM |
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In article <1171405325.067873.184170@h3g2000cwc.googlegroups.com>,
"V" <vfr44@aol.com> wrote:
A fellow on a list once asked for advice on how to become happy and
content while he lived in a small apartment located in the center of
congested, expensive, stressful and unhealthy city. He wanted to
divorce himself from the notion that happiness should coincide with
his living conditions. I agreed with him that we can work on being
happy and content wherever we live irrespective of our surroundings.
But I also had to say that our surroundings can and do have an impact
on us and we are not machines that can turn off stress and problems
that stem from our unhealthy living conditions and be immune to it
all.
Yes, we can work on being at peace even if someone is constantly
stabbing a knife in our side, but such a practice takes all our
energy. This is why many a contemplative become a 'renunciate' and
live like monks or nuns. They 'try' to remove much of life's worldly
irritants and distractions to focus on the spiritual path, so yes our
surroundings and lifestyle can matter to living a serene life.
Although some renunciates find that this life is not all it is cracked
up to be and they still must deal with 'personalities'' unless they
become a hermit.
I lived in L.A. for my first 35 years and them decided to relocate
with my family to a more affordable and safer local in 1989.
Ah, but can't you see that altering your inner environment is behind the reason
you needed a better place to fit in, and that focusing on only external
environmental factors is "wrong by omission." Far too many people make the
geographical change and curse the new place when they realize all their old
problems came with them.
--
the dang
.
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| User: "Al Klein" |
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| Title: Re: Our surroundings can and do have an impact on us (OT) |
13 Feb 2007 10:41:18 PM |
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On Tue, 13 Feb 2007 22:37:31 GMT, dangdangdoodle
<notea_thanks@islandnet.com> wrote:
In article <1171405325.067873.184170@h3g2000cwc.googlegroups.com>,
"V" <vfr44@aol.com> wrote:
I lived in L.A. for my first 35 years and them decided to relocate
with my family to a more affordable and safer local in 1989.
Ah, but can't you see that altering your inner environment is behind the reason
you needed a better place to fit in, and that focusing on only external
environmental factors is "wrong by omission." Far too many people make the
geographical change and curse the new place when they realize all their old
problems came with them.
Or, as in his case, that HE is all his old problems.
.
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| User: "raven1" |
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| Title: Re: Our surroundings can and do have an impact on us (OT) |
13 Feb 2007 06:37:49 PM |
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On 13 Feb 2007 14:22:05 -0800, "V" <vfr44@aol.com> wrote:
<snip>
Everything you post is off-topic; why bother to start labeling it now?
--
"O Sybilli, si ergo
Fortibus es in ero
O Nobili! Themis trux
Sivat sinem? Causen Dux"
.
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| User: "Pastor Kutchie, ordained atheist minister" |
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| Title: Re: Our surroundings can and do have an impact on us (OT) |
13 Feb 2007 04:31:09 PM |
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On Feb 13, 10:22 pm, "V" <v...@aol.com> wrote:
<snip>
Take care,
V (Male)
Agnostic Freethinker
Practical Philosopher
AA#2
V, stop posting to alt.atheism. You are most unwelcome. You are nuts,
your postings are of no consequence and you are not AA#2, that number
belongs to somebody else.
Your description of yourself is misleading. In order to be a
freethinker and you aren't even a thinker.
.
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| User: "Mark K. Bilbo" |
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| Title: Re: Our surroundings can and do have an impact on us (OT) |
13 Feb 2007 07:50:11 PM |
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On Tue, 13 Feb 2007 14:22:05 -0800, V wrote:
A<SMACK>
Shut the ***** up troll!
--
Mark K. Bilbo a.a. #1423
EAC Department of Linguistic Subversion
------------------------------------------------------------
"The whole religious complexion of the modern world is due
to the absence, from Jerusalem, of a lunatic asylum."
- Havelock Ellis
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