BS: sign of the times

Subject: BS: sign of the times
From: Sam L
Date: 13 Sep 04 - 05:18 PM

I saw a sign yesterday that's been bothering me with implications.
It was at an ice-cream stand at the zoo and said

                   PLEASE ENTER HERE
                         -->
It was on the left side opening of a cordon in front of the stand, with the arrow pointing to the right side opening.

I was unable to figure out what it wanted me to do. If it said Please enter here, I would enter where it was placed at the left, but the arrow seemed to indicate I should enter here over there. If it had said Enter, I'd also take the left. If it said Please Enter There --> I'd have understood to go to the right.

As it was, I went where people seemed for the moment to be backed up, to the right.

People kept entering on both sides, butting in front of each other, while we sat eating our ice-cream. I would question the point of having a sign as confused as this, I would think the sign useless and even stupid, but it was a nice sign. It had an authoritative-looking font. So I felt it encumbent on me to understand it, even excuse it. Then I gave up, and thought it was useless and stupid.

Then last night I was watching a political ad on t.v., then a very controversial Very Important movie, and it started to seem to me that the sign was in fact telling me something, something true, and with all the authority of the voice of God. "This is how things are, you doofus" loosely translated from God-language.

Subject: RE: BS: sign of the times
From: Tannywheeler
Date: 13 Sep 04 - 05:57 PM

There ya go, Fred. You can accomplish a great deal more operating with how things ARE than if you're stuck sorting out how they are NOT.   Tw

Subject: RE: BS: sign of the times
From: Teresa
Date: 13 Sep 04 - 06:06 PM

Take it from a blind person: A picture's worth ten thousand words. ;);) :D

T

Subject: RE: BS: sign of the times
From: CarolC
Date: 13 Sep 04 - 06:06 PM

What was the movie?

Subject: RE: BS: sign of the times
From: GUEST
Date: 13 Sep 04 - 07:05 PM

?

Subject: RE: BS: sign of the times
From: Sam L
Date: 13 Sep 04 - 07:54 PM

o, Carol C, I was trying to weasel out of old issues coming up, but the sense or nonsense of what I mean to say is muddy without it.

The ad was for Ky Congresswoman Ann Northup who begins by refusing to talk about herself because, she dirndles, "Ew! It's too embarrassing!" (I have the same problem--personal frigging awesomeness is a heavy burden.) Then members of her family talk at some length about why she should be sainted, knighted, and bronzed. (I hate it when all my family members do that.) Then the ad ends, like a punch-line, with "I'm Ann Northup and I approved this ad."
My issue here is not political, or the breakdown of civility, or anything but the breakdown of Things Making Any Sense. If it's too embarrassing, there's modesty, and all those issues she cares so much about. It's like the sign.

The movie was The Passion of The Christ, which I expected something more from, after all the fuss. There's a lot of smiting. There are some white Holiday Inn hand towels. There's the Mom from Peter Pan who is always sort of pleasant to see. But there's not enough of Jesus being like Jesus, the one in the book, to even make me feel that way about the guy in the movie. He seems nice enough, but with a troubling background story--the effect of the movie is kind of like Brad with the big brain getting shot in Pulp Fiction, but it takes much longer. I suppose I'm supposed to know it's -->JESUS and go from there, but that's not how I usually watch movies. He's just a sign for Jesus, and there's more Christian stuff going on in lots of movies that never even mention it. I think.

And then an odd person here on the forum has fussed at me in ways that, well, I can see that they are saying something, and using words, but they don't quite mean anything. I'm trying to figure out how to be insulted by them, just to be social, but my interlocuter seems to have merely pegged me more or less correctly, yes, right--then lapsed into some sort of gibberish. I was going to apologise, because I don't understand it, like I don't get the sign above, but we got disconnected. I have unanswered questions, like, "Huh?" and "What?"

In the epiphany I'm trying to have, I seem to be connecting this all together into an absurd but logical dream-world. I'm thinking maybe a paradigm has shifted, and we're entering the misinformation age.

Subject: RE: BS: sign of the times
From: CarolC
Date: 13 Sep 04 - 08:57 PM

Yes, definitely a paradigm shift. You'll get used to it. Maybe.

That's the first time I've ever seen 'dirndle' used as a verb. Maybe the signs are saying that you should be living in New York City.

Subject: RE: BS: sign of the times
From: Sam L
Date: 13 Sep 04 - 10:55 PM

Why NYC? I think I'm having a mental breakdown and I'm hoping someone can diagnose it. Also, I have a place under my eye--could that be caused by a bug flying into my eye and making it burn real bad last week when I was mowing?

I mean no offense to republicans. Or to people who like, or dislike-but-take-seriously, the Gibson movie. For me it was about the guy who invented the tall table and chairs. His Mom said it would never catch on. When I tried to be reminded of Jesus I kept thinking of James Taylor. But I think the tall table was around before him. So I got confused.

I think Nabokov used 'dirndle' as a verb in regard to Humbert's first wife in Lolita, a book that can't quite be made into a workable movie.

Subject: RE: BS: sign of the times
From: Amos
Date: 13 Sep 04 - 11:11 PM

Fred:

Naah....I don't think it is a breakdown, unless a breakdown of some previously precious way of doing things/viewing things/being. Such long-nourished viewpoints are very hard to disassemble. So when your innate growth starts disassembling one, it can cause a lot of re-evaluation and confusion temporarily until you get it sorted through. I think you're doing a wonderful fine job of it. Hang in there!! Above all recognize how right you are for being the one overseeing this overhaul!!


A

Subject: RE: BS: sign of the times
From: CarolC
Date: 13 Sep 04 - 11:14 PM

Is your sense of disorientation causing problems for you in your ability to function in your daily life? If so, maybe you should see a doctor. But if it helps you feel any better, I've been having some difficulty figuring out what that Guest is trying to tell you as well. I haven't seen the Gibson Christ movie, and I probably won't, so I can't help you with that one. Never try to make sense of politics. Politics never makes any sense. It's just a way to try to put a stamp of rationality on the perfectly irrational. N.Y. because it strikes me as the kind of place where people would use 'dirndle' as a verb.

How old are you? What may feel like a mental breakdown could just be an early mid-life crisis. I started mine at around the age of 34. It lasted about ten years.

Subject: RE: BS: sign of the times
From: Sam L
Date: 13 Sep 04 - 11:56 PM

Thanks Amos. Thanks Carol C. I'm actually thinking about seeing a doctor for depression, and my eye, but it's partly so I can better encourage my brother to do the same. Or is it?! For bi-polar stuff. I'm 40 something, I can't remember, I'll ask my wife tomorrow. But she'll lie because she thinks I should be older than her.

Really? I bet it was IN New York where the character USED dirndle as a verb! Wait. Or Europe, somewhere, like Paris.

Wait, Carol C--don't go. I need to sort through it. I GOT the Guest comparing me to a cartoon he linked. But I gave him some lee-way on the likeness because I had posted the most attractive photos of me I could find, and they don't really look much like me. There's a better one, you can't even see the lump on my forehead, and my nose isn't so much like a walnut shell, but I didn't use it, because people who know me always insist it isn't me at all. No, they say, I've seen that guy somewhere, that's not you. So I thought that would be going too far, like hiring a model. Or there's a nice looking guy two doors down I could get a picture of with a zoom, for free.

But then after that, Guest was like, you're paranoid, you think I have a decoder ring, and I was like, huh? and the thread was closed, and I was like Doh!

Subject: RE: BS: sign of the times
From: CarolC
Date: 14 Sep 04 - 12:10 AM

Ok. I've just re-read that GUEST post. I wouldn't worry about that one if I were you. I think the GUEST was just projecting some of his or her own stuff onto you in that post.

Lately I find myself regarding anonymous GUEST postings in a similar way to clouds. They're there. I can see them (sort of, or part of them anyway), they sometimes do things that catch my interest for a little while, sometimes not. But each one is a unique event, separate from all other anonymous GUEST postings. I wouldn't worry about it.

Subject: RE: BS: sign of the times
From: CarolC
Date: 14 Sep 04 - 12:11 AM

...but do consider seeing a doctor if you have any concerns for the possibility of a mood disorder like depression or bi-polar disorder.

Subject: RE: BS: sign of the times
From: GUEST,SueB
Date: 14 Sep 04 - 02:55 AM

It's funny that you should be feeling depressed, Fred, because you're rather uplifting to have around. You seem to be a funny and kind and thoughtful person. Also, I'd like to nominate interlocutor for inclusion in the Word of the Day thread.

Subject: RE: BS: sign of the times
From: GUEST,dianavan
Date: 15 Sep 04 - 02:53 AM

Fred I think it is a sign of the times. Remember the concept of Karma? I was always told that whatever you do will come back to you - maybe not in this lifetime but eventually what goes around comes around.

Well ...lately I've been noticing alot of what might be called instant karma. I hardly have time to formulate the thought, "You selfish S.O.B. You're gonna get your..." When something falls from the sky and knocks them for a loop right before my very eyes.

I think time is speeding up or something. I also notice that people really do not care about fact or even truth. Most people prefer a big old, entertaining lie.

Don't worry about your health - the times they are a changin'

d

Subject: RE: BS: sign of the times
From: The Fooles Troupe
Date: 15 Sep 04 - 10:30 PM

I remember when I was a kid and stood on the hill overlooking the lights of the city ever changing,

Red,



Red & Amber,



Green,



Amber,



and back to Red again....

Subject: RE: BS: sign of the times
From: Sam L
Date: 16 Sep 04 - 08:33 PM

my last post didn't show up. must be a sign.

Thanks, SueB, it really IS funny--I'm trying to write comedy all day now, and it's depressing the hell out me.

Serious about bi-polar stuff though. Seems to run in the family. My brother gets the up-side, I tend to get the down-side, which doesn't seem fair. I could get more done with the up-side. And mom always liked him best. But I'll be in Scotland before him.