Conversations with Mortality
June 2, 2023 3:04pm
Don’t let your mortar mix sit around too long; instead purchase only what you can use within the next few weeks. At most it may still be good after 3 months depending on weather and storage conditions. I had some that was approaching 3 years. You lay brick with that stuff and 24 hours later you can scrape it out with your finger.
At least I discovered this before it was too late.
Recent conversations lead me to surmise that few people think very deeply about their mortality. When they finally face this prospect later in life, it seems to strike even more forcefully. I mean, think about it, when you consider death at 18, it seems so far off, you think it might not even happen to you. But – if you first grapple with this idea at 75, you know it’s not down the road, it’s knocking on the door right now and this uninvited guest will not go away or take “no” for an answer. You are now on his schedule.
Many folks seem to find this shocking. They are no longer in control- in fact they realize they never had control over anything. Now, finding they are at the mercy of a capricious universe, the entire foundation of life begins to crumble. What ever was real? What, if anything, is permanent? Is there any purpose to this confusing farrago we call life?
And, whatever answers one arrives at, you may never be the same person you were when you thought you understood it all.
Paris, Ireland, alternate version of God
June 25, 2023 9:34 am
Return -to the previous life!
Nine days in Paris. Five in Ireland. What did we see and do? Our daughters along with a spouse, a fiancé, and a granddaughter were all part of this trip (though some were there for only a long weekend). During those three days with all seven of us present, we ate a lot, toured Versailles and the Louvre, picnicked at the Eiffel Tower, and cruised the Seine. We were at the end of Metro Line 1 and rode the train a lot more than we would have wanted. Lots of walking too. We normally do two miles every day at home but in Paris, I’d say we were doing 6 to 10 miles every day.
When eldest daughter and fiancé had to head back home, the two of us took the TGV to Tours and from there, a castle and winery tour in the Loire Valley. It was OK but the guide was fixated on the mistresses of the French kings and provided little historical context. Also, the itinerary was to include a lunch in one of the castles, but this was a bait and switch, so we had a crepe in a little bistro in a village. Then, the guide didn’t know that we needed to be back in Tours for our train even though the tour company had purchased the tickets and we assumed everyone on the tour (about10 of us) had also come from Paris on the same train. Not so! We were the only participants on that train. Anyway, we talked to the tour people, and they got us on a later train but dealing with the trains was the most confusing aspect of the entire trip. This tour was a disappointment because of the changes and the poor organization, The castles were fantastic, however. Chambord and Chenonceau were beautiful and worth the effort to get out of Paris to see the countryside. My advice on tours is to make sure you know what you’re getting for your money. You may be paying separately for each site you visit – along with food and lodging.
More on this trip later…. well, one more thing now. A word of advice: make sure you take the pick-pocket warnings on the Metro seriously. On day two in Paris my phone was stolen on the Metro and that made things much more difficult than they might have been. Upon hearing this sad story, a friend told me he was pushed out of a train at a stop by four gypsy girls who grabbed his wallet from his front pants pocket as he was falling. Hold on to your money and phones in the Metro and DO NOT STAND NEAR THE DOOR. If you have to take a later train to avoid the door, wait!
And now for something totally different:
What if our concept of God is all wrong. What if all life has a bit of the God consciousness and all are part of this universal consciousness that eventually returns to the origin? The movie Avatar presented this possibility and the whole idea of reincarnation is related as well.
I think that the religions that espouse this view of existence are just providing another escape route from the finality of mortality and a way for sentient beings to hang on to some hope of purpose and meaning in a purposeless and meaningless universe. I must conclude that we are a brief and insignificant flash in the history of the universe, and we will return to the oblivion from which we came. All else is a beautiful and haunting fantasy.