Dec 22 2011: Poverty will grow as long as we view growth of consumption as a desirable thing. We've got this so ass-backwards that its tragicomical. Why is it great for people to rip resources bare to produce massive amounts of sht that goes straight into our junkyards? People have been so dislocated from the actual meaning of enjoyment that now as soon as somebody markets something as enjoyable, we come up with money and pay in droves, no matter how much thoroughly unenjoyable crap we need to do to attain it. Life was never meant to be easy in the sense of doing nothing. But we might aswell help ourselves and the people around us, instead of helping to destroy. No one will ever be happy with things you can buy. True enjoyment comes from people, sharing time, caring, helping, listening, bettering yourself. So, teach kids empathy, teach safe-sex, teach them what they want to know, teach them fearlessness, teach them to feel excited about uncertainty, teach them to question their elders. Maybe we will one day all refuse our paychecks, refuse to pay and start really working with other people instead of under, above and against them. Every single person who isn't happy costs us a little bit of our own happiness in collateral. Each sad news from strangers, from friends friends, is our extended family, so it eat ours hopes away too. Everybodys happiness should be our priority. I am ready to give because I have gotten more than my ancestors combined. I am living the current version of Earth and I want to see the next update, and the next one and so on..
Dec 22 2011: I went to a Vipassana retreat last fall and all the agony of sitting still for hours and dealing with nothing but my head had me go through time periods where every human sound and word felt just painful, feeling either too distant or too close to me. But all through my meditation, whenever I heard Goenka say 'diligently' I felt better. The first part 'dili' sounds kind of funny the way it makes your tongue bounce and reminds the Finnish word 'kili' which means a babygoat. Goats happen to also be quite bouncy in a magickly light way, making climbing unstable mountains seem as easy as breathing. Despite the lightness of the word it still has a certain underlying paternal severity to it that is quite a different kind from 'persistance'. 'Persistance' sounds more like a tree being slapped by the wind and it receiving the beating rather passively until the winds decide to stop. It sounds a bit hopeless and impersonal in comparison. 'Diligently' is distinctly charged with a will and perhaps an intent. It sounds like somebody walking against the wind on their way home, making a constant choice to take a step and another one for as long as it takes and constantly asessing the changes in the situation. And the word ends with a 'gently', how can you not like that? So yes, for now, Diligently.
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A comment on Conversation: In addition to increasing income, what else should poverty eradication include?
A comment on Conversation: What's your favorite word?