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Author Topic: Mood  (Read 15349 times)

Rob C

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Re: Mood
« Reply #20 on: April 10, 2013, 11:36:44 am »

Hello Rob.
Having slept on this I've been prompted by a dream to write again. Like you there are some things I don't feel comfortable about writing on the web, but I've taken heart from your example and will give it a go.
As a younger man I was profoundly influenced by the work of the psychiatrist Viktor Frankl. He developed his ideas in a place I wouldn't wish on anyone. Basically he reminded us that though human beings can find themselves in circumstances beyond their control, they still have the fundamental power to choose their attitude to this, and furthermore they can withstand more than they realise if they can find meaning in their predicament. I believe that is one reason my images often feature tiny figures in vast landscapes. But here's the rub: if you remove the figure the composition collapses. I also like Frankl's work because he used laughter to vaporise phobias.
May I humbly suggest that if you were on his couch he would ask you how you would feel if you had gone first and left your wife to struggle alone? Would that not be a terrible thing? By staying here you have saved her that. You can take pride in your ability to endure and have something to pass to your children, and you can take pride in your contribution to this forum.
David



Gulp!

Yes, I’ve often wondered about how it would have been the other way around: she left alone instead.

My conclusion is always the same: it would have been a lousy option either way. We met when she was 15 and I was 17. In effect, we grew up together, rode the highs and the lows together, and life gave us a healthy balance of both. The only way would have been to hit a motorway bridge as fast as the car would go, but I have this feeling that suicide is an offence against God, Nature, Life, whatever you like to call it, but that it’s unforgivable and would remove any moral hope/expectation of a reunion in the next stage, which I’m fairly convinced is real. The more I see of nature and science programmes the more convinced I become that accident has nothing to do with it, that evolution is just a way of moving existence along to the next thing, and that it has to be as result of a better plan than many think. In essence, I think it proves the reality of a God form which isn’t ours to define because we haven’t had the experience to formulate the concept. So, I live in hope, and that gives strength. Works for me.

Maybe it’s something that comes to you if you have kept animals. They are anything but dumb, insentient beings.

I was pondering our little exchange of posts today after lunch; I took this snap because I felt it was somehow relevant.

;-)

Rob C

David Sutton

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Re: Mood
« Reply #21 on: April 10, 2013, 06:53:06 pm »

A good photograph Rob. It sums it up for me, and you write well about this.
There are so many mysteries in life, and I am slow to penetrate them. But you are right about our pets. Look into their eyes and you can clearly see a soul. My friend's sister has just given birth to another boy. In that first week his eyes are such a clear window into his new soul.
For my friends and pets who have left this world it will only seem like an afternoon before I am with them again. In the meantime I still have a life to live and the responsibility that goes with that. It is strange how we can be such a small element of a great whole and yet be still important in the scheme of things. Don't let anyone say you are not.
David  ;)
« Last Edit: April 10, 2013, 06:54:42 pm by David Sutton »
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Ed B

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Re: Mood
« Reply #22 on: April 10, 2013, 11:19:39 pm »

The only way would have been to hit a motorway bridge as fast as the car would go, but I have this feeling that suicide is an offence against God, Nature, Life, whatever you like to call it, but that it’s unforgivable and would remove any moral hope/expectation of a reunion in the next stage, which I’m fairly convinced is real.


Not a fair trade for the people who cared and loved the ones who went to such an extreme.
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Rob C

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Re: Mood
« Reply #23 on: April 11, 2013, 04:13:27 am »

Not a fair trade for the people who cared and loved the ones who went to such an extreme.



Ed, I'm not sure I quite get what you are saying here, but if you mean that suicide affects those remaining behind, yes, no argument there, because it may prompt feelings, warranted or not, of not having 'done enough', whatever that may be; but if that's what you meant, I think it falls into a minor league of concerns, a secondary rôle being played by the survivors. Secondary, in that regardless of the relationship, their own lives were not the ones rendered intollerable. Some say that any life is better than no life, but it strikes me that those singing that song are not the ones facing the crunch, do not personally have the problems either medical or mental that those driven to despair and self-annihilation must have been facing.

David's reference to Viktor Frankl and the concept of having the choice between being positive or negative is on the money. It does exist, in all aspects of our lives, but the difficulty is in the mind making and sticking with the right choices. In my own case I find I can switch from joy to depression (if that's what it is - maybe just being glum doesn't mean the same thing) in a matter of moments and it can be triggered by the sight of a bed, by a piece of music or even just standing in the supermarket elevator from the underground carpark to the shop, looking into the mirror there and seeing just one reflection where there were always two. These things come out of the blue and hit you; they not only give sadness but also a sense of suspended time. The only thing that I believe can distract them is the opportunity of work, real work, where the mind has to concentrate on something else and more immediate. That's why I hate varnishing: it doesn't occupy the mind - it just bores the hell out of it, forces it to wander. Seeing the old car the other day was another such moment of sadness, not really about the car, but as with its predecessor, the memories of glorious, unrepeatable trips across France and up to Scotland and also the many back-and-forths to various hospitals. The tin box played its part in our lives, for better or for worse.

But hey, the sun's up again today and I didn't need a room heater on last night!

Enjoy the day - we might as well.

Rob C

Rocco Penny

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Re: Mood
« Reply #24 on: April 11, 2013, 10:41:47 am »

While I agree with much written here,

Obviating time to think of outcomes, and instilled expression still count for something.
Simple plan,
join the library, get a card, go to wherever the heck they keep those types things,
and get real photographs of the original handmade cartographs and land grant holdings maps granted by King Ferdinand IV to subjects of his royal crown.
Only interested in a 3600 square mile tract of land.
Those maps would help illustrate the mindset of the cartographers.
Hasn't been done well, and the genocide letters will be published someday.
Reading the Portola diaries yielded some nuggets, seeing the Missions firsthand gives more support, and finally if I could just understand what was really in their minds.
A futile exercise I guess, but there is reason to suspect I understand a little how the people that were here prior to historic account really survived here.
Not what they thought, but how they lived.
The village leaders here sometimes caught and kept California black bear cubs to sacrifice & consolidate their power. They even buried whole bear skeletons in homage to important people when they died.
Thought bears kin to humans and the much larger, more dangerous and powerful golden bear and even bigger grizzly held special significance for the people.
They thought the grizzly bear shaman the most powerful spiritual figure having the most magic and up for permanent scrutiny
Sometimes they'd kill a bear doctor for perceived deeds.
The people whose village I live atop were interesting people.
They believed in Kuksu, the big head cult, and had a legend of the big head spirit on shore, looking out to the place beyond the water to the paradise where there was no bitterness or sorrow and that if the spirit heard, saw, or smelled you coming, they'd vanish before you could see them.
Made for a certain arc of discovery and decision for a child in Ohlone territory.
Would you be quiet enough to see the big heads, or not?
Seems silly I suppose, but not entirely different from the crzy shit the spanish crown was doing just then.
Those maps for the genocide letters...
hahahahaha
I know rob, just a dreeeeaaaaammmm
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ajwnmkEqYpo
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Rob C

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Re: Mood
« Reply #25 on: April 11, 2013, 11:05:00 am »

And today is/was my birthday and unlike New year, I'd made a resolution: lie about the numbers for the first time. So what am I saying? Well, it was my birthday until just before I went out to lunch. Then, I walked over to the car feeling quite cheerful, and shit: advertising crap under the wiper blade. And I hate them touching my wheels, those assholes who come in the night and make the neighbourhood a mess.

So up the blade and away the leaflet except no, the mother was stuck onto the glass. Yes, you got that right: stuck. That ended the birthday right away.

And to think some dick thinks this is good advertising for his/her hair salon. Wrong twice: I have little hair left and don't need reminding; I didn't intend washing the car until the varnishing I'm struck with is completed, so now two chores instead of one. I shall make them a print and stick it on their window. But they are not unique: an Indian restaurant in the Port pulled the same stunt a couple of years ago; I think they went bust.

Sometimes I hate people.

I suppose they'll say they can't get the staff.

Rob C
« Last Edit: April 11, 2013, 11:06:42 am by Rob C »
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Rob C

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Re: Mood
« Reply #26 on: April 11, 2013, 11:16:06 am »

Rocco, you're pulling my chain!

http://youtu.be/4M7gKZqgHn4

I used to listen to this in the darkroom at one or two in the morning, hating the clients who wanted prints tomorrow, but that I knew would leave them lying under piles of junk on their desks for days.

The darkest hour is just before dawn... yeah, tell me about it!

I used to be quite nuts about the blonde, but Mama Cass was the better voice. The women in Fleetwood Mac also knew a thing or two.

;-)

Rob C

Rocco Penny

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Re: Mood
« Reply #27 on: April 11, 2013, 11:23:22 am »

Then I suppose wishing you Happy Birthday is like saying bless you to a sneezing atheist,
Happy Birhtday Rob
(or Birthday) :D
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Slobodan Blagojevic

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Re: Mood
« Reply #28 on: April 11, 2013, 11:23:51 am »

And today is/was my birthday...

Hey, happy birthday, Rob!!! No matter what.

Slobodan Blagojevic

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Re: Mood
« Reply #29 on: April 11, 2013, 11:29:04 am »

... hope/expectation of a reunion in the next stage, which I’m fairly convinced is real...

Careful what you wish for... imagine an eternity of LuLa bickering ;D

Rocco Penny

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Re: Mood
« Reply #30 on: April 11, 2013, 12:02:02 pm »

Rob, people often talk on about good music, how they did this or that while listening to ____ for inspiration.
Bowie in an interview once admitted to having 5 televisions on at once.
There can be no mistaking that music and harmony have deep and permanent effects on one's dealio
Tracing harmony to math functions,
realizing there is a universal symphony.
In this, you friend are like the kick ass trombone player from Eddie Palmieri's band.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=swsaT6EHE4w
It just isn't swinging without the swing
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Rob C

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Re: Mood
« Reply #31 on: April 11, 2013, 12:11:43 pm »

Thanks for the birthday wishes - but in the next world, LuLa will be full of sweetness and light with just the right mix of pretty women and semi-artistic landscapes! And no, the argumentative mothers won't have made it past Pete at the Gates. I almost decribed the gates as pearly, but then thought about a thick old book we used to have about samurai etc. which explained what that term means in Japan (or at least, in that book about Japan) that ended up propping up the bed with another thick paperback on the other side. Why prop up the bed? Calm down; nothing learned from Japan, just acid reflux. You thought inconveneinces came alone?

I feel  better already. The chef in the restaurant at lunch today gave me an extra pork fillet in breadcrumbs which was far too much, so they wrapped it in aluminium foil for me and I shall now cook it a little further in my own, inimitable way. Without the breadcrumbs; I like them, but not twice a day. If I get poisoned, you know whom to sue on my behalf.

Here's hoping for the best.

;-)

Rob C

Eric Myrvaagnes

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Re: Mood
« Reply #32 on: April 11, 2013, 12:37:59 pm »

Many Happy Returns of your 39th birthday, Rob!
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-Eric Myrvaagnes (visit my website: http://myrvaagnes.com)

Slobodan Blagojevic

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Re: Mood
« Reply #33 on: April 11, 2013, 12:38:11 pm »

... in the next world, LuLa will be full of sweetness and light with just the right mix of pretty women and semi-artistic landscapes!...

So... even in heaven landscapes can not be fully artistic? ;D

Riaan van Wyk

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Re: Mood
« Reply #34 on: April 11, 2013, 12:49:14 pm »

Many Happy Returns of your 39th birthday, Rob!



It is 38 Eric- you haven't been paying attention at all!

Best wishes from Africa Rob!

Rob C

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Re: Mood
« Reply #35 on: April 11, 2013, 02:00:10 pm »

39 and holding sounds cool: check out Jerry Lee Lewis's version if you can find it. 38 is even better!

Thanks again ,

;-)

Rob C

Rob C

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Re: Mood
« Reply #36 on: April 11, 2013, 02:02:56 pm »

So... even in heaven landscapes can not be fully artistic? ;D


Nothing if not consistent!

And the extra portion of pork?

A couple of bites and it ended up in the bin.

;-(

Rob C

Rob C

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Re: Mood
« Reply #37 on: April 11, 2013, 03:48:46 pm »

Nothing specifically to do with moods, but since I'm more or less stuck in the office as I transfer my many cassettes into the 2013 era of mp3, I can no longer play music while I work (sounds like WW2) and so I, well, don't work: I read/look at books. Currently having another go at the smaller-format version of Sumo and reading Newton's intro. again, I noted this memorable quotation:

"The term 'political correctness' has always appalled me, reminding me of Orwell's Thought Police and fascist regimes."

Makes one think...

Rob C

Rocco Penny

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Re: Mood
« Reply #38 on: April 11, 2013, 08:49:08 pm »

Here's what I spent your Bday doink
spray booth would help, the barn is good,  but I won't spray color in the studio,
and just the Ospray is a bother,
people pay good money for this,
be the paiinnnttttt varnissssshshsshhh
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Ed B

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Re: Mood
« Reply #39 on: April 11, 2013, 11:20:05 pm »



Ed, I'm not sure I quite get what you are saying here, but if you mean that suicide affects those remaining behind, yes, no argument there, because it may prompt feelings, warranted or not, of not having 'done enough', whatever that may be; but if that's what you meant, I think it falls into a minor league of concerns, a secondary rôle being played by the survivors. Secondary, in that regardless of the relationship, their own lives were not the ones rendered intollerable. Some say that any life is better than no life, but it strikes me that those singing that song are not the ones facing the crunch, do not personally have the problems either medical or mental that those driven to despair and self-annihilation must have been facing.

David's reference to Viktor Frankl and the concept of having the choice between being positive or negative is on the money. It does exist, in all aspects of our lives, but the difficulty is in the mind making and sticking with the right choices. In my own case I find I can switch from joy to depression (if that's what it is - maybe just being glum doesn't mean the same thing) in a matter of moments and it can be triggered by the sight of a bed, by a piece of music or even just standing in the supermarket elevator from the underground carpark to the shop, looking into the mirror there and seeing just one reflection where there were always two. These things come out of the blue and hit you; they not only give sadness but also a sense of suspended time. The only thing that I believe can distract them is the opportunity of work, real work, where the mind has to concentrate on something else and more immediate. That's why I hate varnishing: it doesn't occupy the mind - it just bores the hell out of it, forces it to wander. Seeing the old car the other day was another such moment of sadness, not really about the car, but as with its predecessor, the memories of glorious, unrepeatable trips across France and up to Scotland and also the many back-and-forths to various hospitals. The tin box played its part in our lives, for better or for worse.

But hey, the sun's up again today and I didn't need a room heater on last night!

Enjoy the day - we might as well.

Rob C



It was more about your comment about a reunion in the next stage. I, unfortunately, have had to deal/still dealing with suicide. I lost my wife to it, my daughter, her mom. As you said, the doubt about not doing enough, the wonder of why someone does it is not something that easily goes away. Somehow I don't think it ever will. The answer will never be known.

As far as seeing/hearing something that makes you sad, I don't think that's depression, that's just human nature. Depression is something on a whole different level I think. It's something that consumes you every minute of every day. I've felt that before in my life but I fought my way through it and ending it all was not something I ever thought about. I'm not sure how bad it has to be for someone to kill themselves but it isn't the answer. There is help out there.


On a lighter note, happy birthday Rob. :)
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