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NutAgain!
Trad climber
South Pasadena, CA
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This one might seem funny, but a little context will help.
I'm cleaning my garage, which is a metaphor for cleaning up my head. Lots of stuff there where the animus has cooled, still some pain, but overall a high level acceptance and appreciation of how much more valuable will be the extra space created by cleaning the stuff out.
Going through boxes of old computer and network gear from one of several unsuccessful businesses, which weren't economically rewarding but did hold my curiosity and passion for a number of years. And this little item wasn't really part of that:
This little guy got my dad through college, about 20 years after the normal college track. After high school, he was a furniture mover. He enlisted in the Navy during Vietnam and learned a trade: repairing radars that targeted big guns. That gave him a good living after the war, working his way up from assembly line tech to directing programs for quality control on radar systems for the F-14 and F-18 fighter planes. Somewhere along the road he hit a ceiling without a bachelor's degree, so just as I was finishing high school, he finished. He had many years of getting up before 5am, doing a full day of work, then spending evenings in classes and studying. When he finished with a EE degree, and I was just starting mine, he gave me this calculator.
To me, this little guy represents hard work, and a perfect example of how "they don't make 'em like they used to." It's probably been in a box for 9 years, and it was already 20+ years old at that time with batteries changed who knows when, and the damn thing turned on! That was a golden age of quality in America (edit: except for American made cars!). We are advancing in technology at a blinding and incomprehensible speed, in ways too subtle for anyone to understand unless you are in the field, but I see fewer and fewer things built with the care and attention to detail like this. The incessant drive for efficiency and profit builds a short lifetime into the materials of just about everything today. I'm afraid of buying a new refrigerator that will probably die sooner than the one it would be intended to replace.
So, just a little bit of peace and nostalgia and procrastination while cleaning up.
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crberg
Trad climber
Cave Creek, AZ
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larryhorton
Trad climber
NM
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I'm cleaning my garage, which is a metaphor for cleaning up my head. Lots of stuff there where the animus has cooled, still some pain, but overall a high level acceptance and appreciation of how much more valuable will be the extra space created by cleaning the stuff out.
We may be drifting off on a tangent, NutAgain!, but I can relate. Garage/closet purges at my age deliver more than three dimensional space. Lightening the load I think is a metaphor that works for me. How liberating!
Your post struck a cord I don't give much attention anymore—the absence of quality in a declining world. But the vehicle you used to illustrate your whole experience made me laugh.
I bought this one myself, back when HP was a very different entity than its thin shadow now. You summed it up very well.
But I appreciate this little calculator to the degree that it is one of maybe five objects that occupy permanent residence on my standup desk. The logic it uses maintains its standing as, still, my favorite calculator. It gets regular use—to the degree that you shamed me into cleaning it up before capturing this image.
And, yes, those reminders of animus[sic] excursions are some of the most difficult to throw in the trash, aren't they?
Thanks for the smiles.
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MikeL
Social climber
Southern Arizona
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I liked Larry Horton’s take on his experience here. With all due respect, these images are not the moments of peace. Those can’t be shown. The images were, perhaps, what was in front of a person . . . but they weren’t the moments. I think some narrative or writing needs to go with every one of these images. They maybe communicate a site for an experience, but what was the moment of peace?
I hope someone here gets this.
Be well.
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larryhorton
Trad climber
NM
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I absolutely get your meaning, MikeL. The images cannot be the moment.
Nor can words.
There are cultures with ancient roots that recognize the ability of images to more expeditiously inspire a moment/convey a meaning than written words composed of symbols for sounds uttered from the throat.
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tradmanclimbs
Ice climber
Pomfert VT
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the thing is. i know where this shot was taken. i know the moment it was taken. it was a moment of peace for me.
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mouse from merced
Trad climber
The finger of fate, my friends, is fickle.
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Pictures pre-date words.
You'll always be carting my turds.
Now go away and leave me in peace.
"Phenomenon." :0)
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larryhorton
Trad climber
NM
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Tami, there are no `new' phenomena. The lower worlds of matter, energy, space, and time are a finished creation. Everything that exists or ever will exist here has already been created. A component of mind we call memory creates the illusion of continuity. In the higher worlds, beyond duality, in the unfinished creation, only the moment exists.
But the mind, which doesn't even exist in those higher worlds, loves the idea of something new, doesn't it? There is nothing new.
I'm not trying to be coy or obtuse. But the real discrepancies are those between what we like to think of as reality here, and what is undeniably true in the higher realms. And that gap is so huge that words can't really convey its magnitude.
Further complicating the resolution of that gap is the revelation that virtually everything mind accepts as real and true will be proven to be false and untrue during the ascension of consciousness.
There is only one true 'self', and 99.999999% of humanity have yet to even glimpse it, much less live in it. It, the soul, is so elusive, sound asleep, and snoring loudly, that it never even surfaces to what little awareness is available to us in our current condition. The mental concept of multiple 'selves' is definitely a construct only the mind could concoct. Kahneman's different selves are nothing more than different components and levels of mind—what he calls the experiencing 'self' being the higher mind, and the remembering 'self' a portion of the physical mind responsible for memory. The hardwired portions are expressions of deep seated karmas which we carry for lifetimes.
Those who have attained cosmic consciousness are still only experiencing divine mind, the highest mind. The travesty here is that it's still the mind. It's still dual. It still hasn't recognized soul, much less realized it. It can't maintain reliable equanimity, much less the state of bliss which characterizes the higher worlds. The Masters throughout time have always stated the remarkable paradox that in cosmic consciousness, one is as far from soul as it's possible to get—even though realization of soul transpires just above in the next higher region. Without the escort of a true Master, soul remains unawakened and untouched, and divine mind can ascend no higher. It's reached the zenith of what's possible for the mind. The vast and indescribable regions beyond are inaccessible.
So, this is part of what I attempted to suggest as these moments of peace getting soooo close—a hair's breadth—to the real thing, that they make a deeply lasting impression upon us. Yet, they still are not the 'real thing'. They only point to it. Still, that, in and of itself, is a noteworthy blessing—a lifetime treasure for many of us.
I know that's a lot. Does it make any sense at all? I'm certainly not a Master, but I keep the company of one, and all I can offer is my experience of a measly twenty years.
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larryhorton
Trad climber
NM
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That's very cool, Tami.
I practiced Oriental medicine for twenty years, and increasing awareness was a very large part in changing clients' health. Even when we don't clearly understand something, bringing awareness to it irrevocably changes everything. Our lives will never be the same, and that awareness will steadily feed us doses of increased understanding of a whole subject for years.
Thanks for being candid.
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MikeL
Social climber
Southern Arizona
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Tami:
Kahneman is brilliant, and careful. Whomever's writing you posted does not sound like Kahneman's, but it’s a fair interpretation of his work. Although a psychologist, I read Kahneman in accountanting research--in a field of study that took his research to heart. Accountants are tough cookies. You gotta really show them.
I like what you said. Peace is where is where one finds it. I understand you find it up north in open land with clear broad skies, and in a land that requires / rewards able-bodied and -minded men and women. Hearty.
My comment above meant for folks to say what was peaceful in the image for them, or at least where their hearts were when they took the image.
In my moments of anxiety, it’s instructive to stumble upon folks who are at-one-ment with what’s happening in front of them. I’m interested in the narratives that people paint about their lives, their moments of peace, and what grounded them in those moments. (I am celebrating those.) For example, one of my great moments of peace may have been when I was close to death in combat. So, . . . like, . . . what’s that about??? Ha.
This is a nice thread. I just thought I was missing some descriptions from people who were only pointing to half of the equation.
(So, you’re Canadian, eh? I lived in London for a couple of years, and we’ve been to BC lots--for downhill biking. There are some lovely people in Canada. Too bad we pollute your media with our news-entertainment-culture.)
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tradmanclimbs
Ice climber
Pomfert VT
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Interestingly i also often find peace in the middle of the climb. My solo climb on sunday had some hectic tense moments and anxiety dealing with unstable snowpack but several of the steeper sections had funky ice that really got my attention. There was no room for anxiety, no time to worry about if I would have to chop a bunch of ice to get through the rabbit hole to get to the rappels, no worries about the avi conditions in the decent gully, just engageing steep unroped climbing way up high with great exposure. terraine I know I don't fall on but funky enough conditions to keep you 100% focused. Climbing is the only time my mind is completly free of the 10,000 distractions... finally a short steep rock band with god turf sticks above it guards the top out. you make that move and you are in gentle woods. you know you will live . this is a time of reflection and peace
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Gary
Social climber
Desolation Basin, Calif.
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