Observations from the Park

Don't think a return to back alley abortions is the answer, but it sure sounded to me like, if these women didn't have such easy access, they might have been a bit more careful.

After all, *all* of this *was* her choice. Would she have chosen differently knowing that she couldn't have it taken care of so quickly and easily?

And my old boss who'd had four abortions...? That may be an extreme case, but, again...

I may be provincial, but I have *never* sat around with my girlfriends talking about abortions. YUK!!

Here's what I think: sex and overeating and other indulgences satisfy us in a very primal and low-level way. In a way more fundamental than the results of being responsible, for example, ever will. Previously, there was some encouragement to abstain from these low-level, dare I say, animal desires.

Now there isn't, so much, for a whole variety of reasons.

I'm going to throw red meat to the conservatives by suggesting that maybe the genie of permissiveness was indeed released in the '60's. Since then, we've found ourselves needing more and more, in order to feel stimulated (or in the case of clothing, less and less).

That's not to say that I'm for a reversal of the civil liberties advances we've experienced since then, but there may be a negative side to it, too, of which we've underestimated the importance.

It's like we keep needing to turn up the volume louder and louder, just to hear the song...not knowing that the ringing in our ears would go away and we could listen at a more reasonable level, if we'd just back off for a little bit.

Consumerism=continuous self gratification=continuous affirmation of self importance=freedom to indulge ourselves whenever we want (even if we can't always afford it)=denial of limits=relaxation of standards=whoops, it happened again.

A return to moderation in other areas of our lives will, I believe, aid in a return to a less self-indulgent and permissive society.

So, the answer is, all of us need to be involved, in order to turn in around. All we have to do is begin to say, 'no' when, before, we'd tend to say, 'yes.' Just the little things at first, no big sacrifices.

There are rewards for doing this; they're often of greater emotional and financial value than the instant ones...we just need to help get each other past the impulsiveness we all feel sometimes.

But, as long as even a minority continues to perpetuate the 'prison culture/bling/money is more important than anything and here's how much I've got/everything is never enough' attitude, it's going to be significantly more difficult to popularize moderation.

On this foggy Monday morning, it's looking pretty bleak to me, actually.

The primal desires will always win out; that seems to be the way we're programmed. And it's simply easiest to acquiesce.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(formerVWdriver @ Jul 22 2007, 07:30 PM) [snapback]483324[/snapback]</div>

Well, for what it's worth...

I think that my soul's experience is directly related to its existence in my body; the exact same soul in a different body, under different circumstances, would naturally turn out to be someone different than myself.

In a sense, it (my soul) --Pinto Girl-- *did not exist* until my body did, at least in any form that we can even begin to analyze and discuss here. And she would not have existed in this manner, given even a slightly different set of circumstances.

Under no circumstances would I have been 'Vega Girl' though!!
[laughing]

I see a sort of combination, where our individual souls do have distinct characteristics, but are also absolutely dependent on our physical being for expression on Earth...and, as such, in a sense 'become' (to some degree) the body in which they dwell, and the experiences to which they're exposed, and the environment in which they live.

The curse of living in a material world? (that, and entropy) We are part of it, and have to function by its rules.

This may be a bit iconoclastic, but I feel that we're, each of us, infinitely valuable and also valueless...it is *our existence* itself which makes us valuable...but I don't see that our souls are somehow so special that if our body expires early, we get another chance at existence.

Existence on Earth --as we know it-- is primarily an physiological process, it seems to me. If you're living in a poorly functioning body, it impacts directly your perception of your own existence, doesn't it? Take the soul out of the body (if we even can) and the nature of its existence would be so very different than anything we'd recognize. Even 'exist' might not be quite the right word.

I don't believe in some sort of queue of souls, waiting for bodies to emerge from the womb...and I certainly don't believe that all the other souls have to wait, until the soul in front of the line is implanted in a healthy body at birth.

This implies order, but in a very human way. I do believe in an ordered universe, but it's not the type of order we've come to recognize in our daily lives, or under some circumstances might even be capable of recognizing at all.

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When does the soul leave the body? It's a beautiful process, I think; our bodies are designed to release the seat of our consciousness (our soul?) when they expire. It's not perfect...sometimes we suffer...but that seems to me to be how it works.

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Anyway, my $0.02.