Practicality, Pragmatism and Compassion

I was thinking tonight what some of the qualities are that you need to survive to old age and came up with:

Practicality
Pragmatism
and
Compassion

The list could go on and on but, for example, at my present age I see Arranged marriages as useful in that if parents arrange the marriage, you might not be in love with who you marry, but if you can get along and financially be okay likely you can succeed and become friends and lovers eventually.

In my own life I have been married 3 times but the most successful one is the last one and we have been married now 25 years. The first one 3 years. The Second one: 14 years and the last one 25 years.

It took me until I was in my 40s to really understand what I DIDN'T want in a marriage and it took me that long to get over myself and to get over idealism and all that to practicality and pragmatism as well as compassion for myself, my children etc. so I could be everything I needed to be for myself and all others, especially for my children.

Life isn't perfect and you can't always make it work with the people you fall in love with. But, if you learn to be pragmatic and practical and have compassion for yourself and others you might just live to 100 or more years of age "and that might even be a good thing!"

By God's Grace

I was listening to a comedian from Australia and he was saying Depression comes from Hope. I think even though there is something to that I wouldn't call it HOPE.

I would call it "The Unrealistic Expectations of one's 20s".

It's true some people drag all this out into their 40s or 50s but most of these people are either crazy or dead by 50 because if you aren't practical enough to survive, you don't.

Compassion is the single most important thing for yourself and all others. Even in Buddhism they have a saying: "Carry Water. Chop Wood". What this means is that if you don't heat wood you can't cook or bath in warm water which means you cannot eat healthy meals or stay clean enough not to get diseases and die.

So, "Carry Water and Chop Wood" are obviously before electricity or gas for lighting or heating but the truth is still the same. So, "Carry Water. Chop Wood" is about the practicality and pragmatism of basic survival.

When I bought 2 1/2 acres of land in 1980 at 4000 feet on Mt. Shasta I had to literally carry water and chop wood every day (especially in the winter just to stay warm and to feed and shelter my family properly because we didn't have electricity there unless I brought in an gasoline electrical generator for our land (which I did some times to pump water and to run power tools for building). But, most of the time I used Aladdin Kerosene Lamps then or candles with reflectors for reading before going to bed in the loft at night in the A-Frame with a beautiful view of Mt. Shasta which is often covered with snow at well over 14,000 feet high.

It was wonderful to live a simple life like that where I could actually live the Buddhist saying of "Carry Water Chop Wood".

But, even in this idyllic situation I still had to be ultimately practical and pragmatic at all times so I and my children survived 10 miles from the nearest gas station or town especially when there was 7 feet of snow and we had to ski towing a toboggan filled with groceries bungee corded to it to our A-Frame from our International Scout II. All of the 3 children and we the parents had our own cross country skis at that point from 1980 to 1985.

The simplicity of life often will save your life especially if you were raised in a place like Los Angeles like I was.

By God's Grace