Out of Pod Experience

Ah man. Yeah.

Well, if anything to say... metaphysical folk are the best of us. Same as Vincent Van Gogh, Werner Heisenberg, Arthur Rimbaud, Neils Bohr, Anthony, Hermann Hesse, Syd Barrett, Basho Matsuo, William Blake, Albert Einstein, current quantum physics thinkers, and worlds of unrecorded people doing the same thing before them. (It's just a quick sample list of some fine rebellious eccentric people, not a select opinionated list or anything).

At the same time, Theo Van Gogh and other people maybe not as right on the edge. But more solid and equally as beautiful. Some choose to never grow up and just keep exploring and trying to figure out, human social and economic rules be damned. How about that, eh? Been going on since the first proto-opossum ancestor checked out the Moon, sat and wondered about why it's today and not yesterday, felt happy, and cruised around sniffing up good food in the bright Moonlight. Blessed be the sniffers forever.

o7

Wait, who is being trolled?

"normalfrogs" Nice that those guys accepted themselves and adapted. Good strategy they had there.

Damn story digs deep. Sorry for your friend and your loss, but hey he wasn't wrong this world does need to change, for the better. But then again welcome to the human race, and the internet.

o7 fly safe

The internet is made of people, like us. This post is a sobering reminder that we can do a better job of remembering that. Things can get so awful. God. Just TRY to be kind--try. Try to help others be kind too. We all need it sometimes.

Yes. The Industrial Revolution wiped out the extended family/clan lifestyle we humans had since the very beginning. Instead, now we (in the wealthy world) have the 'nuclear family.' Basically, you don't have the tribe to run with, you don't have the clan where everybody knows you and you know everybody else. In social situations, you're on your own, and you have to be kind of a social entrepreneur, or you can end up isolated. It's a psychologically difficult lifestyle. Humans evolved as social pack animals, we're not built for solo roaming.

That social transformation started with basic industrialization, 200 years ago. With the rate of tech influence on daily lives now... who knows.

Removed a post and those quoting it for trolling.

There's a saying which goes:

"Every person you meet is fighting a battle you know nothing about. Be kind. Always."

It has the ring of authenticity about it, and initially I accepted it as true and promised myself to take on board the proffered advice. However, I soon forgot those words and discarded (perhaps even sooner), the advice.

Your post resurrected the quote, which had apparently remained intact in my head.

In a past job I had the privilege of reading a great number of suicide notes. I say 'privilege' because some people, on the very point of ending their lives, become possessed of a kind of eerie wisdom which should shake the very mountains with its awful simplicity.

It is snippets from those messages which I do still recall, many years after I first read them. They have been useful to me, but not in any conscious way. From the 17 year old lad who left us, writing only 'f*** everyone', to the cultured elderly lady who covered page after page in a close barely-legible scrawl (an autobiography, essentially), the ones who write (not all do) are earnest in sending us a message, almost from beyond; or else why do it? We should take note of what they say.

People will tell you that the mind of someone intent on ending their life is a complex mix of current problems and historical issues which require a professional to fully grasp, and a 'care-plan' in the form of a rescue. This may be true, but I tell you from my experience that what is also common to all suicides is this: they lose hope.

If, in being kind to folks, you are able to encourage them to regain that hope (not 'be optimistic' or 'look on the bright side') you will have done more than a freighter full of psychiatrists. You will also have succeeded in doing the near-impossible.

So yes, be kind; but understand yourself; you're also fighting a battle no-one knows anything about. Your body, mind, spirit, and emotions - all deserve kindness (which is really just concerned and helpful attention) - from you.

I don't go around trying to spot opportunities to 'help'. Rather, opportunities present themselves in a natural way.

To the OP: Thank you for having the will to publish that letter. Let's hope that it reaches the person who needs it most.