Doomsday!

[Guest]

DOOMSDAY

When I was a kid, growing up in a Navy town, there were people who walked around with these signs that said: The world will end at Midnight. While I realize that these people were activists, when I was a child, they scared the shit out of me.
In fact, I had panic attacks for many years over going to sleep because I was so sure the world would end while I was sleeping. How many nights I slept 'under' my siblings beds, I couldn't even count.

Lets not even really mention how utterly upsetting that commecial with the Native American crying on the side of the road, standing in a pile of garbage was and still is to me.

I'm not sure what my point is, really. I understand that we face some truly horrid situations today. Some of those situations leave me feeling the way I did when I was a kid. Maybe the question is: What can I really do? How can I make much of a difference, aside from voting, when I'm nearly killing myself trying to make the bills?

Oh, and a big FUCK YOU to Smokey Bear. I was not the only person who could prevent forest fires.

 

[minsue]

Have a , sweetie. (And no more PSAs for you, when they come on the screen, you just walk right of the room, you hear?)

 

[rgraham666]

There are two things you can do, vella.

First, accept that you can't change the world. Each of us only has so much power and that usually isn't much.

Second, change what you can. In my case I'm really careful about garbage and recycling. I always take the time to make sure all the waste I generate goes to the proper bin. I don't believe I'll ever own a car, they generate too much pollution. And I never miss a vote at what ever level.

Well I did once but that was because there wasn't anyone to vote for except fanatics and marketing products.

*HUGS* sweetie. It's not as bad as it seems. And as long as we've got each other things are pretty good.

 

[Guest]

Have a , sweetie. (And no more PSAs for you, when they come on the screen, you just walk right of the room, you hear?)

LOL.
well, that would be nice, except there is so much i would love to do. i know im not the only one either and while i think im pretty damn important to my family, i realise that its not 'all about me'
i want to volunteer for hospice care
i want to install solar hotwater and heat panels
i want to to to...
you know?
its just that theres so much i would love to do but some of the things i want to do to make a small difference, are far out of my reach.

 

[Guest]

There are two things you can do, vella.

First, accept that you can't change the world. Each of us only has so much power and that usually isn't much.

Second, change what you can. In my case I'm really careful about garbage and recycling. I always take the time to make sure all the waste I generate goes to the proper bin. I don't believe I'll ever own a car, they generate too much pollution. And I never miss a vote at what ever level.

Well I did once but that was because there wasn't anyone to vote for except fanatics and marketing products.

*HUGS* sweetie. It's not as bad as it seems. And as long as we've got each other things are pretty good.

sensibly, i know you're right.
but but but
what id really love to do is live out in the country, using electricity produced byt he wind...that kind of thing.
i think its just me with idealisms that are too far out of my reach.
thanks, handsome. i know that we can only do so much. i guess im in the "i want to..." mode.

 

[impressive]

Well, you could make yourself into a pain-in-the-ass (as I have). *grin*

Seriously, though, it doesn't take much to make a difference -- just heart, and you've got that in spades. Clubs help, too.

 

[Guest]

Well, you could make yourself into a pain-in-the-ass (as I have). *grin*

Seriously, though, it doesn't take much to make a difference -- just heart, and you've got that in spades. Clubs help, too.

i have always been in awe of the difference you make. i wish i had the strength to do that as well.
i have done some things in life that i'm very proud of as far as making a little difference but there is so much left to do.
one day, i'll be able to spend the time needed to make this difference. one day.

 

[minsue]

LOL.
well, that would be nice, except there is so much i would love to do. i know im not the only one either and while i think im pretty damn important to my family, i realise that its not 'all about me'
i want to volunteer for hospice care
i want to install solar hotwater and heat panels
i want to to to...
you know?
its just that theres so much i would love to do but some of the things i want to do to make a small difference, are far out of my reach.

I know.

You don't make a small difference, Vella-love, you make a huge difference. If you look, really look, at the effect you have on all of the people who love you, you so make this world a better place.

 

[Guest]

I know.

You don't make a small difference, Vella-love, you make a huge difference. If you look, really look, at the effect you have on all of the people who love you, you so make this world a better place.

thank you.

one day. but baby steps until then.

 

[lil_elvis]

You're making a big difference right now.

 

[The_Darkness]

Well, you could make yourself into a pain-in-the-ass (as I have). *grin*

Seriously, though, it doesn't take much to make a difference -- just heart, and you've got that in spades. Clubs help, too.

I keep my heart in a baseball bat. Seems to work well for me.

But yup, just do what you can and be responcible. Don't throw things on the ground unless they're supposed to be there or something's going to eat it. Don't run your car for too long to warm it up during the winter....quit being a pussy and get your mittens on. Recycle what you can, but don't go crazy about it....the energy some people use in the recycling process can out-weigh the efforts it takes to get to the recycle centers.

Use your head, listen to your heart, and if you find people that won't do that, you can borrow mine and give them a little adjustment.

 

[English Lady]

DOOMSDAY

When I was a kid, growing up in a Navy town, there were people who walked around with these signs that said: The world will end at Midnight. While I realize that these people were activists, when I was a child, they scared the shit out of me.
In fact, I had panic attacks for many years over going to sleep because I was so sure the world would end while I was sleeping. How many nights I slept 'under' my siblings beds, I couldn't even count.

Lets not even really mention how utterly upsetting that commecial with the Native American crying on the side of the road, standing in a pile of garbage was and still is to me.

I'm not sure what my point is, really. I understand that we face some truly horrid situations today. Some of those situations leave me feeling the way I did when I was a kid. Maybe the question is: What can I really do? How can I make much of a difference, aside from voting, when I'm nearly killing myself trying to make the bills?

Oh, and a big FUCK YOU to Smokey Bear. I was not the only person who could prevent forest fires.

You are a sweet, sweet lady. Your gnerous spirit touches people all over the world -when you offered to send boots for Beth I was so touched, I will always remember that generosity.

You may not be able to give as much as you like, but you give all you can and that is what matters.

 

[Guest]

You're making a big difference right now.

its easy to care.

~~
there are so many worth while things to advocate. im not just talking about the environment. we recycle, etc.
i wish i were more eloquent. lucky has that attribute. kinda think she should be a lawyer but her heart is elsewhere.

know that movie, pay it forward? i love that ideal. i think that i'll adopt some of the premis from now on and not limit it to just three strangers.

 

[Guest]

You are a sweet, sweet lady. Your gnerous spirit touches people all over the world -when you offered to send boots for Beth I was so touched, I will always remember that generosity.

You may not be able to give as much as you like, but you give all you can and that is what matters.

wish that could have worked out. (wish you lived closer)

its frustrating, really to see all these things you want to do and have it just out of your reach.

 

[English Lady]

wish that could have worked out. (wish you lived closer)

its frustrating, really to see all these things you want to do and have it just out of your reach.

But the thought was there love and honestly that is what counted -I got her boots in the end anyways

I'm a dreamer myself, I'd love to do millions of amazing things. Thing is, there's lots I can do on a smaller scale and just 'cos they're not as grand doesn't mean they're not as much needed.

You do a whole lot more than you might think, love. I know it. Even a smile to a stranger can make a big difference to their life -you never know.

 

[cloudy]

I understand completely, vella-la.

It's easy to beat yourself up for not doing "more," but in the end, you're only one woman - big-hearted, generous and beautiful - but there's only one of you.

Do what you can, and don't fret about what you can't. You'd be amazed at how something small can make a huge difference to someone else. What you do comes from the heart, and it does make a difference.

 

[Salvor-Hardon]

I just think vella's hot for saying "FUCK YOU" to Smokey the Bear.

 

[Roxanne Appleby]

"What can I do?" - an essay by Roxanne

I can be conscientious about being a good and valuable person in the sphere of my own life, performing the duties and providing the emotional support that loved ones, colleagues and members of my community count on me for. I can be a reasonable and balanced person, which may make me a source of wisdom and stability in my community.

When I see a thing that needs doing in my community I can step up and do my share. (To cite a personal example example, when it snows I shovel the elderly neighbor's sidewalk, and even clear a path past the house of the lazy deadbeat, because it’s the mailman and schoolkids who will suffer. When retired it would be good to join the little old ladies who run the polling places.)

In short, I can live what philosophers call “the good life.” Doing so makes me an asset to the community I live in – the world I actually inhabit – rather than a liability. Vella, if anyone on this board is there, I have to think it is you.


Now I must get a bit political: When there is an emergency or a tragedy within our sphere of influence, good citizens like those described above do the things they can to fix what’s broken, heal the afflicted and comfort the bereaved. One of the novel features of the modern world is that makes us powerfully aware of events beyond our sphere of influence, including distant emergencies and tragedies. This novel experience creates a psychological tension that is hard to resolve. It can create guilt, which most of us on a porn board would agree is not a healthy emotion, at least when cut off from objective personal offences (stealing my brother’s candy.)

There are good ways and bad ways to deal with this tension, and I believe finding the good comes back to reason and balance. It is reasonable to send $20 or $100 to an effective charity after the distant hurricane or tsunami; but not to shirk your own commitments to rush off and join the relief effort because of some misplaced guilt (you didn’t cause the hurricane, or even build the city on the floodplain.)


Moving to a more abstract level (and probably more political), the economic system by which we live is industrial civilization. It’s a huge new thing in the world that has brought awesome benefits – abundant food; modern medicine; well-appointed,climate controlled homes along with many other material goods; convenient short and long distance transportation (cars and airplanes); less dangerous and more interesting jobs; and much more.

It has also brought costs – pollution, mainly, and social costs – and being a new thing in the world we are still learning how to eliminate or minimize these costs. And we are learning: Every generation advances in this sphere, assisted by the growing wealth generated by greater knowledge in productive processes.

Nevertheless, we still in the “learning in progress” mode, and like the hurricane example above, the costs of industrial civilization can generate guilt in individuals. More easily even, because we do benefit from processes that create (ever smaller amounts of) pollution. And like the hurricane example, there ways to respond to the awareness of these things which are reaonable and balanced, and ways that are not.

I believe that wanting to escape the current processes of industrial civilization, or to set oneself up as an “island” outside of them is not a reasonable or balanced response. An intrinsic element of industrial civilization is the use of very large amounts of energy. The “current process” for much of this is burning fossil fuels. This particular process will be substituted with others over the next century (the most plausible alternative is an electric economy with nuclear power, which is becoming much safer and cleaner, but the details are for a different thread.) Odds are the transition will not be characterized by the “doomsday” scenarios marketed by individuals or groups who benefit from the widespread belief in such scenarios. There is nothing that requires it to be traumatic, and assuming extaordinary personal costs or sacrifices to "go outside" the current process is not reasonable or balanced.

Industrial civilization’s role in our lives is an objective and “coercive” fact – it’s there, and we can’t escape it. A rational person wouldn’t want to escape it – who wants to trade our lives for the terror, lack of comfort and drudgery that characterized those of our ancestors? (A simple wisdom tooth extraction promised the horrors of the damned.)


So what’s my recommendation to you, and others here? Relax. Be a good wife, mother, colleague and member of your community, and don’t feel guilty about things that are beyond your sphere.

Sure, send $20 to the tsunami. Sure, turn down the thermostat to 68 in winter, use a little less AC in the summer (especially during the peak hours of 3-7 pm – your house can coast for four hours), get a minivan instead of a Suburban, etc. Recycle if it makes you feel good, but in the big picture it's mostly meaningles (and making a cult of it can actually waste resources.) But don’t feel guilty about not going off to cleanse the sores of Ebola victims in some third world hellhole, or not living on the land growing organic crops with a windmill and mule.

Be reasonable, be balanced, honor your commitments to the people in your life, seek the good life, and pursue your own happiness. In my view, that is the greatest contribution you or any of us can make to the world.

 

[elsol]

*yawn*

I'd worry and work on the part about 'killing yourself to make the bills'.

In reality if Doomsday come, you're fucked. If it doesn't come though... that part is going to continue wrecking havoc in your life.

Fuck the rest of the world... take care of yourself first and when you're okay, then work on the rest of us.

The part you can do to make my world better is HOT avatars. (The one with the thigh!)

 

[matriarch]

Deleted - wrong thread.

Ooops.

 

[Lisa Denton]

DOOMSDAY

I'm not sure what my point is, really.

http://i16.photobucket.com/albums/b11/LisaDenton/Untitled-255ww.jpg

Never give up.

http://i16.photobucket.com/albums/b11/LisaDenton/control.jpg

You can make things different.

http://i16.photobucket.com/albums/b11/LisaDenton/DSCF0207.jpg

Be a nut.

http://i16.photobucket.com/albums/b11/LisaDenton/Untitled-1a.jpg

Laff with your friends. (in the AH)

 

[3113]

I understand that we face some truly horrid situations today. Some of those situations leave me feeling the way I did when I was a kid. Maybe the question is: What can I really do? How can I make much of a difference, aside from voting, when I'm nearly killing myself trying to make the bills?

Okay. the first thing you need to do is get yourself some superpowers. Those really make a difference.

The second thing you need to do is to get people to counteract the effects all this had on your programing. For example, I'm sure Cloudy would be more than happy to braid her hair, sit on a horse, wander through a beautiful meadow, offer you a big smile and thumbs up and say, "Thanks for saving the enviornment, Vella! You Rawk!"

And I'm sure Ron would be delighted to carry a sign outside your window saying, "Doomsday cancelled thanks to Vella!"

And we'll find someone to dress up as Smokey and offer you a personal apology for making you feel like you were the only one.

These things can be counteracted

 

[dr_mabeuse]

The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists has always featured a big clock on its cover, supposedly showing how close mankind was to annihilating itself with nuclear weapons. It's traditionally been set to five minutes to twelve.

They just moved the hands on the clock two minutes closer to midnight.

The administration's one-sided abrogation of the Nuclear Non-proliferation Treaty and duck-assed handling of negotiations with North Korea and Iran coupled with our proclaimed policy of pre-emptively invading any country working on nuclear weapons are given as reasons for the increased danger.

Ignorance, Arrogance, Incompetence. The three horsemen of the apocoplypse

 

[TheEarl]

You might not be able to save the world all on your own, but I think I speak for lots of people when I say that you've saved my world in the past. When I was at my worst, you were one of the people who made a difference.

You make a difference everywhere you go.

The Earl

 

[Lisa Denton]

Google is amazing, I was lookin at some smoky bear stuffs ... and found this.




Smokey Bear
Died 1976 - Capitan, New Mexico

Smokey died during the Bicentennial year, and was taken home and buried in the Capitan, NM, National Forest. A tree planted next to the spot is nourished, as in some way are all trees, by the great bear himself. The nearby Smokey Bear Restaurant features Smokey Bear Burgers.

Smokey II, like his predecessor, was a cub rescued from a forest fire. However, Smokey II didn't catch on with the public. When he died, the Park Service didn't know what to do with his body -- so they burned it.

The fire quickly spread out of control proving that the Park Service could
also have prevented forest fires.

So the Smokey Bear Restaurant now offers Vella's Blackened Bear Burgers as
a tribute to "The lil girl who saved us all."

(Smokey Bear Museum And Grave: 118 W. Smokey Bear Blvd, Capitan, NM [Show Map] Directions: On Hwy 380 in town, at Smokey Bear Historical Park, just west of the intersection of Hwy 246. Admission: Free. Phone: 505-354-2748)