zanshin

spica

I think money has more to do with than most people would like to acknowledge. If the 96 year old NY lady could have hired home aides maybe she could have stayed in her apartment and felt safe and happy. My aunt's condo is quite pricey. The alternatives for elderly without funds or good health and mobility or good family support are pretty bleak.

I plan to retire around 50, so I hope to have at least couple decades without too much troubles. Sure am open to alternatives though, I know of one trailer park I would live in, it is gated, everyone keeps their place up well and they are all friends. I also have an adopted aunt who has a retirement condo I would live in, they seem to have lots of fun even with old age woes, she took a class there and learned to use the internet last year. My 70 year old father drives those tractors and still does lots of manual labor, although he is slowing down. I have a great-grandfather who died at 86 when he fell off the top rung of a ladder picking apples. We have Western studies that show even debilitated people in nursing homes can benefit from strength training, we know tai chi and qigong help balance. Okinawa has a culture where it is not unusual for 80 and 90 year olds to walk or ride their bicycles for miles. I don't know old age has to be miserable debilitated time, but we do seem to assume people past 70 can't do a lot of things. We still can't live for ever of course and I don't know how to make death peaceful and happy and pretty,so we need to find the Tao of dying.

October

That's where I grew up, yes, corn, soybeans and some wheat, between ethanol and other factors grain farming has become pretty lucrative. Just a backyard garden in the suburbs now. When I was young I thought the country was boring and nothing to do. Now I want another place away from the city, but it will be more little organic hippie retirement farm, not a commercial operation.

It is considered bad luck to say the # 4 in Japanese, because it is similar to the word for death. Of course over the top bizarre to sucker punch you for saying it in English if you were unaware, but there is a superstition about 4. welcome!

orange

http://www.legacy.com/obituaries/nytimes/obituary.aspx?n=antonia-larroux&pid=164596250#fbLoggedOut

I think there are 2 basic ways to be smart. The first one is to be open to everything take in lots of information quickly and understand and synthesize it. The other one is to laser focus on something complicated and tune out everything else as distraction til you understand it. So, 2 processes- the first takes multitasking and encompassing awareness and the second concentration and single pointed awareness.

Why is it about money and billionaires as brilliant masters of the universe now? Mostly I would not want attention to go with money on scale of Bill Gates, not against him having it. No turning into immortal dragonfly either,although being my own water slide does sound cool. Will stick withmayfly and live with wild abandon for just one day over endlessly chasing cheese in a maze. Burn out or fade away?

Is it quantification or qualification? Our species' greediness even built into our language, greater is more and is also a synonym for better. Why are things that are high "superior" and things that are low "inferior."? People judge numbers and have lucky numbers.

All things came from the One and all things are One. 1>0

Since you asked, I thought about it and I'll choose insect, but not a crawly jar insect. I would like to try mayfly, dragonfly might be even better. So while we are talking of life and death, Sree, what do you think of idea of karma and reincarnation? Is this life all we get?

That billionaire seems more like a rat in a maze than a bug in a jar, but pretty similar analogies. That business motivational book about mice and cheese, boss put it in the staff bathroom, I recommend it for those who get constipated. Farm journal and tractor magazines are also good.

Gonna know nothing Floating off to dementia Softer dimmer still.

Had homemade Stromboli with red bell peppers, arugula, fresh oregano, mozzarella and black olives with the last of marinara from the freezer from last years home tomatoes.

5 minutes is not much. Can you take a big chunk of a day to do freezer cooking or twice a month, otherwise maybe lots of salads and smoothies and prepared foods.

I think we probably control much less than we think we do. Wear and tear can be beautiful and old people can still have wisdom even if they don't have mobility, I don't like the way our culture tends to treat seniors as a burden; they should be cherished. I also don't like expensive medical heroics to prolong low quality of life. Both the controlled checkout and the extreme measures to prolong life seem like people trying to control nature, fear of death, fear of life. I'm against the expiration date for another reason, nothing like *dead*line for getting things done. It would be too much mass spazziness with all those people motivated to overcome their natural laziness and check things off bucket lists. Better to stay relaxed, plenty of time.

Yeah, it's when ideas or beliefs spread among people like a virus or a religion and get embedded into the cultural dna. I think it's just vu and some accent marks somewhere in deja. There is a lesser known phenomenon called jamais vu; that is when something very familiar seems strange unknown, like waking up in your own bedroom and feeling like it's a foreign place.

Came to mind as reading taoiseasy's excellent advice about sitting in chairs. I like to travel and go places, but it seems like it just drains me anymore. No good way to sit in car, get terribly stiff, I know I keep my shoulders up too much when I drive and try to keep them relaxed. Weekend trips hardly seem enjoyable, by the time I relax and loosen up it's time to go back. Perhaps the metal element of the car is not good for me. Any advice for travelling and driving/car rides?

If it is worn out and has lost it's essence, then I will not miss it. Just as long as it does not die or almost die away in tragic fashion only to be reborn as a new and more powerful social control meme.

The whole idea of the hero or god who dies or almost dies and this creates an alchemical event is an old common theme. Baal, Ishtar and Odin all come to mind as older than the New Testament. I'm not sure that there are really any truly original stories being told.

You are the insect's farm animal and when you are dead they will eat you. Insects know how to be patient. Except for mayflies, they live just one day, so it is fly, fly, fly and f..have sex all day long, since that's all they get. Today is the first of May.