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are you living?

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10:24 / 28.02.02

I believe we only get one shot at life. what do you think, and are you really living it?

10:27 / 28.02.02

I really like this, I even keep a copy on my desk, so I dont forget:

for a long time it seemed to me that life was about to begin - real life. but there was always some obstacle in the way, something to be gotten through first, some unfinished business, time still to be served, a debt to be paid. at last it dawned on me that these obstacles were mny life. this perspective has helped me to see there is no way to happiness. happiness is the way

souza

10:36 / 28.02.02

I'm not. Just killing time.

10:46 / 28.02.02

go out and get some nookie. on the way back, bring me some ben & jerrys, will you? none of that fruit shit, either

10:47 / 28.02.02

Or alternatively, my preference...

Life is what happens when you'd made other plans.

I'd add - so you might as well make the best of it. If life is made up of the obstacles, then I suppose you can't really avoid living. You just have to decide whether you can take the jumps in style.

I suppose my question in return would be - what do you consider living to be in this sense - what's real living to you?

For some people it's being able to afford a decent holiday four times a year, for others it's never having to cook for themselves, and others, just being around their kids.

None of these appeal much to me, but I'd be interested in hearing what the rest of you think.

Answering for myself, occasionally I think how different my life would have been if I'd taken 'that job' in London. For some people that would have been a more 'real living' choice than staying in Birmingham.

But then I remember that I don't even like being in London for more than a day, and that I decided against ambition as an ultimately fruitless pursuit.

I stayed with my girlfriend, who I'm still with three years later, I've got my friends and family close to hand, the world's best pub, plenty of books and a whippet. Not for some, I suppose, but I'm living the way I want to.

Yes, there are things I want to change, but that's what time's for. For doing stuff in.

10:54 / 28.02.02

What's a "nookie"?

Haus about we all give each other a big lovely huggle?

10:56 / 28.02.02

You know....like Chewbacca.

10:56 / 28.02.02

for me, livings about making your happiness. not waiting for things, putting things off for fear or worry or for some other time. of course, your version might be WAY more exciting than mine is, but do you feel that you are doing it, or just waiting for something to come and happen?

Fengs for the Memory

10:58 / 28.02.02

Nookie - a crossdressing Wookie

11:00 / 28.02.02

quote:Originally posted by The Haus Red:
You know....like Chewbacca.

I hear they make great pets, but are impossible to potty train

11:09 / 28.02.02

I'll have my revenge, one day you'll ask me what's a "lambari", and I'll be all witty and dance around you... thank you very much for nothing...

11:14 / 28.02.02

Nookie is sex, Jade.

What's a lambari?

11:16 / 28.02.02

(all excited)
Ooh, it's a... it's a... um... well you know, one of those..

DAMN, you asked too soon, I didn't have a witty response ready yet!!! DAMN DAMN DAM!!

It's a fish.

11:55 / 28.02.02

Limp Biskit did it all for the nookie, remember...

Uh, am I living? Je pense que oui. Life certainly isň't boring for me at the moment, and even in spite of (or perhaps... BECAUSE) recent challenges in my life, I am having FUN. And using my brain.

These are good things.

12:06 / 28.02.02

And other good things in life include AC/DC and thighs. Just the word 'thighs' makes life more enjoyable. Try it.
Thank you.

pointless and uncalled for

12:08 / 28.02.02

Unless you have a lisp, in which case thighs matters.

12:13 / 28.02.02

Some times, I try to suck the nectar out of the life. Other times, I can close my eyes, and let months pass by with hardly a notice. I'm still not positive which of these two is the key to surviving....

(oh, and I thought Lambari was a brand of mineral water)

12:14 / 28.02.02

Pourquoi pas ?

The Return Of Rothkoid

12:19 / 28.02.02

Some of the time, I think I do. People tell me that I am, being so far away from home, doing so many things. At the moment, it seems like I'm merely caretaking a huge machine called Debt, which occasionally allows the doors of the machine-room in which it's housed to open - but only for a moment. Jesus-clouds and fresh air float in, but then the doors close again.

Yeah, it's a bad day at work.

13:10 / 28.02.02

I am living. It's far preferable to the alternative. Not death, but just existing. Living is hard, and some days I fucking hate it, but I will never stop doing it. I may not be exactly where I want to be, but part of living is accepting that there will be turns in the road that you can't predict. I have days where I think I should just drive straight and go off the cliff, but then I hug those turns and see what's around the corner and it's all worth it.

Sorry I beat that metaphor into the ground.

Zoom.

13:49 / 28.02.02

quote:Originally posted by bitchiekittie:
I believe we only get one shot at life. what do you think, and are you really living it?

no.

next question.

15:14 / 28.02.02

Living? Nope. I simply exist. My entire life pretty much runs on automatic.

Now if I were to wake up tomorrow morning and decide to actually start living there'd be a couple things I'd start with:

1. Talk to that attractive girl in English class, ask her out for coffee or something.

2. Decide I really don't need a job. Fuck money. My parents said they'd help me blindly blunder my way through college. You don't need money to be happy right?

3. Stop putting off finishing all these projects I have going, simply because I'm afraid of finishing them. I don't know what I'd do if I actually finished everything.

15:16 / 28.02.02

I have many more happy moments than unhappy - therefore yes, I am 'living' rather than merely existing.

pointless and uncalled for

15:24 / 28.02.02

I come somewhere between the two. I guess I'm just not living enough, or maybe not living the right way. Something like that. I can't complain that my life sucks but I always find myself wanting more.

15:28 / 28.02.02

quote:Originally posted by H:
I always find myself wanting more.

ah, I know that feeling well.

may I never be satisfied!

Morlock - groupie for hire

16:32 / 28.02.02

Life, Hmmm. I think I had one a while back, but it broke. Trying to strap together a new one as we speak.

For the record, my definition of living is doing anything that you feel leaves some signs to mark your passing. I am if you think I am, sort of thing.

Anyway, enough of the woe-is-me bollocks, I'm off to get some food.

17:06 / 28.02.02

quote:Originally posted by bitchiekittie:
...life...and are you really living it?

YARRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR!!!!!!!

(tellin' it on the mountain, baby!)

m3

17:16 / 28.02.02

no, but I'm trying to change that. Hopefully I'll get some sort of life before I die.

just, why does it take so long to change things?

17:37 / 28.02.02

Living life? About a third of the time. Another third i'm observing, and the rest, i'm dreaming.

17:40 / 28.02.02

quote:Originally posted by bitchiekittie:
I believe we only get one shot at life. what do you think, and are you really living it?

To me life is like a flame on a match.

Apart from that, yeah I'm living life, almost by accident, but learning bit by bit to enrich it too. That'll do for me now.

18:02 / 28.02.02

I dunno, w1rebaby. It seems to me that when you're trying to effect change it seems to take a while, but when you're not, life changes constantly. Perhaps we need to apply relativistic theories to life changes.

Or maybe I should crawl back under the comic shelf.

Zoom.

19:25 / 28.02.02

Life is what happens while you busy doing other things. Who said that? Fucked if I know. Anyway, I'm busy doing other things, bye...

(I wish I had a Czech keyboard like Czerry Bomb that could put accents on consonants)

03:05 / 01.03.02

I spent the last couple of years stagnating, but now I'm back in school, playing music and writing a lot more. Thus, I feel that I'm living, mostly after midnight and rocking til the dawn quite a bit too. The only time that I don't feel that I'm living is when I'm at work, because my job feels like a collosal waste of time, pushing buttons and taking money and all; I mean sure, someone needs to do it, but when I'm at Walgreens I feel like my brain is leaking out of my ears and nose.

03:48 / 01.03.02

Sadly, no.
Im not living..Ive been sorta avoiding it actually. Just cascading from one moment to the next. Ive thought about it but it all seems so futile, so nul and void.
I've resigned myself not to living my life but rather to ensuring that I have a positive effect on the lives of those around me.

Disco is My Class War

04:24 / 01.03.02

It makes me quite sad that so many Barbelites don't think they're living, really. And there's such deep cynicism about 'life' even being an option. Sad, sad, sad. Which makes me wonder what the hell people are doing, really, and why they feel so powerless. You kids really need to go read some Debord; think about the spectacle and how it chains you to your boredom. Then become a Neoist; I've heard they really know how to live.

</'pro-situ' spielising>

Me, I'm breathing. I'm typing. I'm probably living. I have made very deliberate choices about how to live; I feel like my life is very much the product of those choices and if some of it isn't working out, that's a reason to keep looking for more effective ways to get where I want to go. I'm not particularly 'happy' all the time but I don't believe happiness is the goal, anyhow. How could it be when the world is so fucked up? On the other hand, I have a lot of friends who are constantly surprising me with their wit and grace and impossibility and love, I still manage to surprise myself heaps. And I have a place to live, enough food to eat, coffee every morning and circus classes. The only thing I'm not doing enough of is dancing. Maybe.

A long time ago, a friend of mine wrote to me from Israel with a request to dance in any roundabout that I found myself in/on/walking past. It was a kind of connection thing: we missed each other lots, and we decided that if we both danced in roundabouts on opposite sides of the world, we'd have some crazy connection across the seas. So I'd like to extend the invitation outwards to anyone who doesn't think they're living. Go on, find a roundabout sometime today. Take yr Walkman or don't. Just do a little hip-wiggle in the grassy patch, okay? For at least a minute. I guarantee, it will make you feel much more alive.

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