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
Showing posts with label Practicality. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Practicality. Show all posts
Saturday, December 14, 2019
Tuesday, March 19, 2013
Practicality
As the Assault weapons ban seemed to go up in smoke today, I was thinking about how people in different environments would have markedly different reactions to guns, cities, wilderness, the out of doors etc.
For example, people in a city tend to me much more interdependent societally and people in the country have to be much more self sufficient and independent or else they couldn't survive in the country. And so, this tends to create very different kinds of people with very different values.
Even though I was raised from age 6 to 21 in Tujunga and then Glendale, California (both in Los Angeles County). my father was an out of doorsman and so was his father, and his father before him too who was a Captain in the Northern Army in Kansas in the Civil War. So, I was trained by my father to be a backwoodsman and how to survive in the wilds anywhere, how to find my way alone anywhere and how to look for landmarks anywhere I went so I never would be lost (so I wouldn't die in the wilderness like so many do these days). I was also given what was my father's .22 pump rifle when I was 8 years old that was given to my father when he was 6 by my grandmother. This would have been in 1956 and was a part of an at least 400 year tradition in my family of welcoming young men into young adulthood by giving them not only a firearm but respecting them enough to use it as an adult. This was just a part of Being an American in the U.S. still in the 1950s.
When my father was 2 hit was bitten either by a coyote or desert fox that his older brother (aged 6 was raising in a cage in Morinci, Arizona. My Grandfather was building housing for miners in the deep pit copper mine there at the time as he was an Electrical Contractor in 1918 when my father was 2. Since the sheriff and doctors were at that time 25 to 50 miles away when they finally got my 2 year old father to the doctor within the week he said that my father would have died if the bite had been 1/100 of an inch deeper because it would have punctured his kidney and he would have died.
The point I'm trying to make is that the law and doctors then might have been a day or more away and there likely weren't any phones in the area at that time either. So, being self sufficient in all ways kept people alive. If people were silly or stupid in these kinds of environments they were soon dead or dying.
The problems in big cities are often very different than the ones one can encounter in the country or in the wilderness. For example, going into a deep forest where you can't see major landmarks because of the thick forest can be very dangerous if there isn't a well marked trail. And even then if there are many branches to a trail if you don't have a map or GPS getting lost is pretty easy. Or even if you have GPS if your battery goes dead or you drop it and it breaks you still won't know where you are even today. And in most wilerness areas there is no cell reception anyway. So, a cell phone is no help at all in these kinds of situations.
Personally, because of the way I was raised I'm quite at home in the Wilderness even if there are bears and mountain lions around. I know hwat i'm dealing with. But, often in some cities I'm not familiar with I don't feel safe at all because I don't live there to know where it is relatively safe or what to watch out for. So, I spend much more time in the wilderness because I'm at home there. But, I also know there are people who only feel safe in a city. But, to me personally that doesn't make any sense at all.
So, wherever you live it tends to train you to survive in the kinds of environments you are growing up in. But, that doesn't mean you are ready for other environments unless you prepare yourself well for all the differences.
The most important things I can say about any environment you are in is that you must always try to remain calm and very observant, especially when you are in unfamiliar territory. This is the best way to stay alive and actually have fun wherever you are.
For example, people in a city tend to me much more interdependent societally and people in the country have to be much more self sufficient and independent or else they couldn't survive in the country. And so, this tends to create very different kinds of people with very different values.
Even though I was raised from age 6 to 21 in Tujunga and then Glendale, California (both in Los Angeles County). my father was an out of doorsman and so was his father, and his father before him too who was a Captain in the Northern Army in Kansas in the Civil War. So, I was trained by my father to be a backwoodsman and how to survive in the wilds anywhere, how to find my way alone anywhere and how to look for landmarks anywhere I went so I never would be lost (so I wouldn't die in the wilderness like so many do these days). I was also given what was my father's .22 pump rifle when I was 8 years old that was given to my father when he was 6 by my grandmother. This would have been in 1956 and was a part of an at least 400 year tradition in my family of welcoming young men into young adulthood by giving them not only a firearm but respecting them enough to use it as an adult. This was just a part of Being an American in the U.S. still in the 1950s.
When my father was 2 hit was bitten either by a coyote or desert fox that his older brother (aged 6 was raising in a cage in Morinci, Arizona. My Grandfather was building housing for miners in the deep pit copper mine there at the time as he was an Electrical Contractor in 1918 when my father was 2. Since the sheriff and doctors were at that time 25 to 50 miles away when they finally got my 2 year old father to the doctor within the week he said that my father would have died if the bite had been 1/100 of an inch deeper because it would have punctured his kidney and he would have died.
The point I'm trying to make is that the law and doctors then might have been a day or more away and there likely weren't any phones in the area at that time either. So, being self sufficient in all ways kept people alive. If people were silly or stupid in these kinds of environments they were soon dead or dying.
The problems in big cities are often very different than the ones one can encounter in the country or in the wilderness. For example, going into a deep forest where you can't see major landmarks because of the thick forest can be very dangerous if there isn't a well marked trail. And even then if there are many branches to a trail if you don't have a map or GPS getting lost is pretty easy. Or even if you have GPS if your battery goes dead or you drop it and it breaks you still won't know where you are even today. And in most wilerness areas there is no cell reception anyway. So, a cell phone is no help at all in these kinds of situations.
Personally, because of the way I was raised I'm quite at home in the Wilderness even if there are bears and mountain lions around. I know hwat i'm dealing with. But, often in some cities I'm not familiar with I don't feel safe at all because I don't live there to know where it is relatively safe or what to watch out for. So, I spend much more time in the wilderness because I'm at home there. But, I also know there are people who only feel safe in a city. But, to me personally that doesn't make any sense at all.
So, wherever you live it tends to train you to survive in the kinds of environments you are growing up in. But, that doesn't mean you are ready for other environments unless you prepare yourself well for all the differences.
The most important things I can say about any environment you are in is that you must always try to remain calm and very observant, especially when you are in unfamiliar territory. This is the best way to stay alive and actually have fun wherever you are.
Thursday, November 1, 2012
Practicality
Practicality and Efficiency are actually the very essence of survival itself. But this is only true if one also has common sense. Einstein once said something like, "Intelligence isn't very useful unless one also has common sense." And yes, this is true, some of my most intelligent friends my age are dead now and not because of dying old age in a natural setting. Because intelligence alone doesn't keep you alive.
However, no matter your intelligence, common sense, practicality and efficiency does tend to keep people alive. Intelligent people often die early because of rationalizations. This is especially true in regard to drugs and alcohol and risky behavior in general. Where a less intelligent person who has common sense wouldn't do half the things a really intelligent person would do, they also might be much more likely to be alive at 70 or 90 because of their average intelligence and common sense.
So, for the most intelligent of people risky behavior of all kinds tends to kill them from alcohol to drugs, to who they hang out with to world travel to places with unusual diseases etc.
But, remember this once again, a person with average or even low intelligence who has common sense, practicality and efficiency might be alive and happy to 100. So, all you really intelligent people out there try to evoke more of your common sense, instincts and intuition, because that will actually keep you alive if you actually want to be alive a very long time. But then, there has to be a reason to live that long if you are extremely intelligent too doesn't there? So, finding a good reason to be alive and to stay alive is very useful if you want to care enough about living to continue to stay alive into old age.
However, no matter your intelligence, common sense, practicality and efficiency does tend to keep people alive. Intelligent people often die early because of rationalizations. This is especially true in regard to drugs and alcohol and risky behavior in general. Where a less intelligent person who has common sense wouldn't do half the things a really intelligent person would do, they also might be much more likely to be alive at 70 or 90 because of their average intelligence and common sense.
So, for the most intelligent of people risky behavior of all kinds tends to kill them from alcohol to drugs, to who they hang out with to world travel to places with unusual diseases etc.
But, remember this once again, a person with average or even low intelligence who has common sense, practicality and efficiency might be alive and happy to 100. So, all you really intelligent people out there try to evoke more of your common sense, instincts and intuition, because that will actually keep you alive if you actually want to be alive a very long time. But then, there has to be a reason to live that long if you are extremely intelligent too doesn't there? So, finding a good reason to be alive and to stay alive is very useful if you want to care enough about living to continue to stay alive into old age.
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