BS: What Have We Learned in 2008?

Subject: BS: What Have We Learned in 2008?
From: Ebbie
Date: 02 Jan 09 - 02:36 PM

In searching for similar subjects in the 'Cat, I put 'wisdom' in the filter and set it to 'All'. Check it out - there are some GREAT threads there, some of them hilarous, all of them worth the readin'.

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In usual end-of-year ruminations I got to wondering what is different on this day from what it was on this day a year ago, what have I learned in the course of this year? If I have learned nothing it's been a badly wasted 365 days. I found several things, one of which is a life enhancer for me.

1) I have become less fearful in significant ways. The downtown area of Juneau, typified by a multiplicity of bars and attendant ills and incidents has always in these 20 years set my nerves on edge. People of all ages, some with bagged bottles in hand, others visibly drunk, most either ominously silent or on the other hand raucously obscene, clustered in doorways or on street corners is how I perceived them and I never walked alone among them.

(There is a shelter for homeless people on this street also and we have our share of panhandlers. It is legal by city ordinance as long as the interchange is cordial and respectful and no pressure is applied.)

In May of this year I moved to an apartment building that fronts onto an intersection in the heart of ubiquitous bars, and thus began my lesson.

I walk my little dog three times a day up and down these streets, in good weather and bad, in the light of long summer days and in the winter's dark. And I discovered that these are just people like anyone else - duh! - and many of them have interesting stories and insights. Further, they are protective of me and of my dog. In a strange kind of way I am safer today.

I do carry my walking stick and I do stay aware of my surroundings especially when I cut through back alleys and I don't make contact with the obviously disturbed. I can report that I have not felt a moment's anxiety on these walks.

Isn't that marvelous!

Subject: RE: BS: What Have We Learned in 2008?
From: VirginiaTam
Date: 02 Jan 09 - 03:11 PM

Another smile for me today. Thank you Ebbie. Inspiring.

Some of what have I learned is not so positive.

After the suicide of a near colleague early 2008, that a large organisation (county council) which exists to serve the public cares not one fig about the people it serves or the people who work within it. Only that it continues to seem to be doing well and that the fat cats within can grow fatter. I have seen so much waste and suspect corruption. It sickens me.

Some not so negative

I have met all sorts of people on the Mudcat and had both positive and negative experiences here. But it is all good. I learn much, I make friends. Maybe a new one right now, named Ebbie.

Subject: RE: BS: What Have We Learned in 2008?
From: Rapparee
Date: 02 Jan 09 - 03:58 PM

We learned a lot, but I'm not at all sure WE learned anything.

Subject: RE: BS: What Have We Learned in 2008?
From: Ebbie
Date: 02 Jan 09 - 04:27 PM

As a country, Rap, I think we learned a LOT. Maybe it's not yet the actual learnin' but at least we have the hope.

VirginiaTam. it is sad that not all discoveries are positive. Even then, however, my guess is that it is the BODY, not the individual parts that is so corrupted. Kind of the mob mentality at work- it is easier to lose one's voice when one perceives that others' voices are speaking with one voice.

(You know what? I just realized how incoherent that sentence is!)

By the way, VT, welcome to the Cat. You have a good voice. :)

Subject: RE: BS: What Have We Learned in 2008?
From: John MacKenzie
Date: 02 Jan 09 - 06:49 PM

I learned that the well balanced nutter, has a chip on both shoulders.

Subject: RE: BS: What Have We Learned in 2008?
From: Lox
Date: 02 Jan 09 - 08:07 PM

I learned the most important lsson of my life to date ...

... the difference between what is reasonable to expect and what is realistic to expect.

If your expectations are based on what you perceive as reasonable to expect, you will always be frustrated and you wiill always have a headache.

This is because every one of us has a different idea of what is reasonable.

It is reasonable to expecta train to run on time.

But not always realistic.

If you develop realistic expectations you will not be surprised by unreasonable actions, points of view or behaviours.

But if you persevere and plan based on realistic expectations, you can, slowly but surely, achieve reasonable goals - but you have to be realistic about it.

This realisation, probably late in life compared to many, has resulted in a significant decrease in stress and a significant increase in optimism.

It may be worth consideration.

Subject: RE: BS: What Have We Learned in 2008?
From: Amos
Date: 02 Jan 09 - 08:13 PM

I learned to trust my instincts and not to beat my head against a brick wall; I learned that even nicotine can be ignored. (Not for the first time, but I hope for the last!).


A

Subject: RE: BS: What Have We Learned in 2008?
From: Art Thieme
Date: 02 Jan 09 - 11:46 PM

That smugness comes from not washing your genitals.

Art

Subject: RE: BS: What Have We Learned in 2008?
From: VirginiaTam
Date: 03 Jan 09 - 06:52 AM

Lox- that was ummm er.... real.

Art - that was totally uncalled for thread splash over. Thank you.

Subject: RE: BS: What Have We Learned in 2008?
From: Sleepy Rosie
Date: 03 Jan 09 - 07:26 AM

That love genuinely outlasts death. And that the hollowness, shock and emptiness I would have absolutely expected, was instead filled with the most profoundly beautiful and loving nearness of Spirit. Something very difficult to describe, but an experience which will forever remain with me.

Subject: RE: BS: What Have We Learned in 2008?
From: freda underhill
Date: 03 Jan 09 - 07:43 AM

I learned that I still keep putting my foot in it.

Subject: RE: BS: What Have We Learned in 2008?
From: Sleepy Rosie
Date: 03 Jan 09 - 09:08 AM

Doh is me!!
I also discovered that I like Traditional Song...!!
Which has been a real discovery for me.

(...but that still nothing beats Rock'n'Roll played very loud like this.
. :-)

Subject: RE: BS: What Have We Learned in 2008?
From: Jim Dixon
Date: 03 Jan 09 - 02:34 PM

As a nation, we learned that leading your country into an unjust and costly war can result, seven years later, in your party's losing control of the White House and both houses of Congress.

Or maybe we learned that leading your country into an unjust and costly war CAN'T result in your party's losing control of the White House and both houses of Congress—unless you throw in a serious economic recession.

I guess I'm still trying to figure that out.

Subject: RE: BS: What Have We Learned in 2008?
From: GUEST,lox
Date: 03 Jan 09 - 05:45 PM

Oh yes - the upshot of having realistic expectations ...

... is that you consider what is possible ...

... and as long as your radar is looking for possibilities, you will find opportunities.

Now there's a reason to be optimistic.

Subject: RE: BS: What Have We Learned in 2008?
From: KT
Date: 03 Jan 09 - 11:52 PM

Ebbie, what a great realization!! Thanks for sharing it! I suspect your presence is appreciated by the folks who've come to know and recognize you, too.

Sleepy Rosie, I loved your post of 7:26.

Subject: RE: BS: What Have We Learned in 2008?
From: SPB-Cooperator
Date: 04 Jan 09 - 04:06 AM

Locative, Dative and Instrumental Plural
Declination of cardinal numbers
Comparitive and superlative of regular and irregular adjectives and adverbs
verbs of motion, both perfective and imperfective, and some other usage of verbal prepositional prefixes
Extended my vocabulary by about 200 words
Use of the conditional
Use of relative clauses with 'which' as the conjunction

Subject: RE: BS: What Have We Learned in 2008?
From: Richard Bridge
Date: 04 Jan 09 - 04:45 AM

That capitalism contains the seeds of its own destruction?

Subject: RE: BS: What Have We Learned in 2008?
From: VirginiaTam
Date: 04 Jan 09 - 04:50 AM

amen, Bro