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On June 26 2010 03:14 BroOd wrote:Show nested quote +On June 26 2010 03:02 DefMatrixUltra wrote:On June 26 2010 02:27 BroOd wrote:On June 26 2010 02:13 DefMatrixUltra wrote:On June 26 2010 01:49 Old Man wrote: Dear Young Man,
I’m very sorry. I’m not myself much these days. Time marches on, and looking at the face of what I’ve lived, sometimes it’s hard not to be beaten down by the overwhelming cost of my age and experience. Time was I would’ve apologized profusely and bought you a new ice cream on the spot; these days I often find myself lost, alone and confused.
All my friends have passed on, including my best friend and partner for 58 years, Marie. When she passed last spring, I felt what was left of my youthfulness and vigor leave me and dissipate in the air like a cold breath, hanging for a moment and then vanishing. It’s hard to wake up to an empty house, and a television doesn’t make a very passable substitute for your sole mate. Most days I clean the house and tend to my garden, like Marie would’ve liked. I’m too old to work, and spend an awful lot of time just waiting to pass on myself, in the hope that I might be with her again somewhere.
I don’t like to eat out at restaurants, as eating alone is a profoundly lonely experience for me, but every once in a while I will get some fast food when I run out to the hardware store or the like.
The sad truth is that I couldn’t have afforded to replace your ice cream, despite wanting to. I’m on a very fixed budget, and every measly dollar I spend makes me nervous and worried. It’s not a pleasant feeling to have worked your whole life and find yourself one day with nothing to show for it.
This is honestly the mindset that some people have. But all I have to say is: Deal with it. Everyone has tough times. Everyone dies. If you get to the point in your life where you're just waiting to die, you're doing it wrong. If you have no passion for anything and no respect for yourselves and others, you are already dead. Find something to love, to desire, to work towards. That is what happiness is. This message is age-independent. Haha, heavy handed and self-righteous, cooked just the way I like it. Can we get a few more life lessons while you're doling them out, mr. armchair philosopher? People of all ages and stations are prone to feel like they are trapped in the irresistible grip of fate. This feeling of inevitability, of purposelessness, is a death on its own. It's the same thing you can find in doses in those suffering "common" depression. Whether you've just lost your most loved or you're battling against a cancer "guaranteed" to kill you or you're wondering when old age is finally going to "catch you", you just have to find something to cherish, something to care about, or it might as well all be over anyway. The reality is that you can die at any instant in your life from an inconceivable number of phenomenon. Rather than focus on what is "inevitable", focus on the things that make life worth living. How was that? Not bad, but you might have to pare it down a bit to fit on a hallmark card. Look, I get what you're saying, but don't you see how the sentiments you're expressing here are both presumptuous and, frankly, a little obnoxious? They're vague and seem almost unassailable in how they present simple truths, but the reality is that life isn't as black and white as that. I just thought the fact that you'd respond to a person like that (even if it is a fictional one) with a phrase like "Deal with it" and then make some proclamation about universal happiness a bit pompous and distasteful.
Yeah, I realize now that "deal with it" has different connotations when it is by itself. What I meant was more like "Do something about it." "Deal with it" in a fuller sentence is usually more like "If you meet trouble at this juncture, you're going to have to be prepared to deal with it."
Anything you can say to respond to someone's life story is going to be presumptuous. I could respond with a life story of my own and some of the wiser people I've met, but what's the point of that? What I'm saying has nothing to do with "philosophy", it's more psychology than anything else.
The problem of "what is the point of living?" comes up when people experience tragedy in one form or another. The best way to deal with it is to find something you love and explore that. It's not as easy to do it as to say it, but there's really not any other option. The worst thing someone can do in this situation is to give in to feelings of hopelessness and misery.
I think it is very distasteful to tell someone in pain to "stop hurting and find something to distract yourself" (a more cynical way to look at it). But I'm glad that there are people out there that do it.
Dunno why I'm hung up on this issue, I guess I just feel strongly about it.
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+ Show Spoiler +On June 26 2010 01:49 Old Man wrote: Dear Young Man,
I’m very sorry. I’m not myself much these days. Time marches on, and looking at the face of what I’ve lived, sometimes it’s hard not to be beaten down by the overwhelming cost of my age and experience. Time was I would’ve apologized profusely and bought you a new ice cream on the spot; these days I often find myself lost, alone and confused.
All my friends have passed on, including my best friend and partner for 58 years, Marie. When she passed last spring, I felt what was left of my youthfulness and vigor leave me and dissipate in the air like a cold breath, hanging for a moment and then vanishing. It’s hard to wake up to an empty house, and a television doesn’t make a very passable substitute for your sole mate. Most days I clean the house and tend to my garden, like Marie would’ve liked. I’m too old to work, and spend an awful lot of time just waiting to pass on myself, in the hope that I might be with her again somewhere.
I don’t like to eat out at restaurants, as eating alone is a profoundly lonely experience for me, but every once in a while I will get some fast food when I run out to the hardware store or the like.
The sad truth is that I couldn’t have afforded to replace your ice cream, despite wanting to. I’m on a very fixed budget, and every measly dollar I spend makes me nervous and worried. It’s not a pleasant feeling to have worked your whole life and find yourself one day with nothing to show for it.
I’m sorry I made you upset today, it was not my intention or desire to encumber a stranger with anger or grief. If I can give you any advice that might make you feel better, it’s that as the minutes roll past you unceasingly, with each one the minutia of life means less and less. If you pull back and view your moments not like small specks of paint, but as a painting, you’ll see it’s not each moment that matters but rather the whole of it, the scope of what makes you a man. Sometimes we all need a little perspective, something to show us that maybe the ice cream isn’t that important, and maybe this useless old man isn’t mean or selfish, he’s just having a hard time at it all and sometimes it’s just all too much.
I wish you all the best, and God bless.
LOOK HERE OLD MAN....
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On June 26 2010 00:39 kOre wrote:
EDIT: Overall, old people like this are annoying, one even threw a bottle water at my car (while we were both driving) because I wouldn't let him cut me off ... but I guess that's more funny than annoying :D
Did it happens last summer around Montreal? Did the guy who threw the bottle was in a Dodge Grand Caravan OR Red Weird Pick up? Did he have long hair?
My boss told me a story how he threw his water bottle at some kid's car because he kept tail gating then skipping and slowing down in front of him.
Would be hilarious if that was actually you.
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On June 26 2010 01:52 Chill wrote:Show nested quote +On June 26 2010 01:49 Old Man wrote: Dear Young Man,
I’m very sorry. I’m not myself much these days. Time marches on, and looking at the face of what I’ve lived, sometimes it’s hard not to be beaten down by the overwhelming cost of my age and experience. Time was I would’ve apologized profusely and bought you a new ice cream on the spot; these days I often find myself lost, alone and confused.
All my friends have passed on, including my best friend and partner for 58 years, Marie. When she passed last spring, I felt what was left of my youthfulness and vigor leave me and dissipate in the air like a cold breath, hanging for a moment and then vanishing. It’s hard to wake up to an empty house, and a television doesn’t make a very passable substitute for your sole mate. Most days I clean the house and tend to my garden, like Marie would’ve liked. I’m too old to work, and spend an awful lot of time just waiting to pass on myself, in the hope that I might be with her again somewhere.
I don’t like to eat out at restaurants, as eating alone is a profoundly lonely experience for me, but every once in a while I will get some fast food when I run out to the hardware store or the like.
The sad truth is that I couldn’t have afforded to replace your ice cream, despite wanting to. I’m on a very fixed budget, and every measly dollar I spend makes me nervous and worried. It’s not a pleasant feeling to have worked your whole life and find yourself one day with nothing to show for it.
I’m sorry I made you upset today, it was not my intention or desire to encumber a stranger with anger or grief. If I can give you any advice that might make you feel better, it’s that as the minutes roll past you unceasingly, with each one the minutia of life means less and less. If you pull back and view your moments not like small specks of paint, but as a painting, you’ll see it’s not each moment that matters but rather the whole of it, the scope of what makes you a man. Sometimes we all need a little perspective, something to show us that maybe the ice cream isn’t that important, and maybe this useless old man isn’t mean or selfish, he’s just having a hard time at it all and sometimes it’s just all too much.
I wish you all the best, and God bless. Look at my life, I'm a lot like you were. +1 for neil
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On June 26 2010 05:01 Peekay.switch wrote:Show nested quote +On June 26 2010 00:39 kOre wrote:
EDIT: Overall, old people like this are annoying, one even threw a bottle water at my car (while we were both driving) because I wouldn't let him cut me off ... but I guess that's more funny than annoying :D Did it happens last summer around Montreal? Did the guy who threw the bottle was in a Dodge Grand Caravan OR Red Weird Pick up? Did he have long hair? My boss told me a story how he threw his water bottle at some kid's car because he kept tail gating then skipping and slowing down in front of him. Would be hilarious if that was actually you.
LOL
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On June 26 2010 00:45 Chill wrote: You didn't actually say any of that, did you? that was my first thought
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On June 26 2010 05:01 Peekay.switch wrote:Show nested quote +On June 26 2010 00:39 kOre wrote:
EDIT: Overall, old people like this are annoying, one even threw a bottle water at my car (while we were both driving) because I wouldn't let him cut me off ... but I guess that's more funny than annoying :D Did it happens last summer around Montreal? Did the guy who threw the bottle was in a Dodge Grand Caravan OR Red Weird Pick up? Did he have long hair? My boss told me a story how he threw his water bottle at some kid's car because he kept tail gating then skipping and slowing down in front of him. Would be hilarious if that was actually you. u should prolly ask ur boss if:
1. the kid was wearing racing gloves 2. the kid looked like some1 who probably would own an RX-8 in the future
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kore, all i gotta say is: you did the right thing.
Just because someone's older, doesn't give them any right to be an ass like that, giving attitude, after they've faulted another person. I would have done the exact same thing; probably wouldn't have said as many words as you did, but there would have definitely been excessive amounts of cussing involved.
In general, I respect older people. It's just the way I was raised up (korean family). The one thing that bugs me though is that the older people get, the "better" they seem to think they are. This makes sense though, you learn more from experiencing more in life.
BUT...
when an old geezer runs into you and makes you drop your mcflurry, then proceeds to give attitude and bitch at you..... then nothing i said above matters. RESPECT??? what respect? give him the respect he deserves, bitch him out and take his walking cane, snap it in half, drop it on the ground, say "whoooops, that was an accident. APOLOGIZE BITCH", and leave.
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i understand/agree with u kOre, u got balls to talk shit, better have balls to take it in return; old, young, don't matter. people never realize what type of person they are talking too, nor do they think before they part their lips...sad really.
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Haha nigga moment, funny shit.
kOre, big props to you! I don't think I'd have the balls to start yelling at the cunt out in public :C I hate when old people do like that, happens to me all the fucking time. But I really can't yell anything back cuz my job is on the line.. ugh.
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My grandma hates old people like that too, she's 80 yrs old and she tells me that people like that are the reason of the bad stereotypes towards old people.
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On June 26 2010 01:52 Licmyobelisk wrote:Show nested quote +On June 26 2010 01:47 Wr3k wrote: One time I was on the bus with headphones on and my eyes closed, and then all the sudden someone whacks me with the back of their knuckles on the head and when I turn around this old man is like "what is your problem, give the lady your seat". I look back and there is this old lady sitting a couple seats down. I'm like, "sorry I had headphones on and my eyes closed otherwise I definitely would have given up my seat so she wouldn't have to walk as far." The guy then proceeded to rant about how I am a little prick and have no fucking respect. At that point I just shook my head and put my headphones back on.
I'm honestly glad you gave the guy an earful because there are some senior citizens that are just fucking pricks. Wow man, you must be one of the most patient person i've ever known. getting punched at the head by a fucking prick. I'd almost auto punch back if I was you. Like it wouldn't matter if his big, small, girl, old, boy, alien, predator. etc I agree completely. For the most part I am a very mellow person and can take a lot of shit. When someone touches my head though I go ballistic. This kid slapped me in the face one time in a pick up game of soccer after he scored a goal and I punched him in the gut.
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Hong Kong20321 Posts
hahahha awesome story lol
once on the MTR (the hk metro) i was just sitting and at the next stop 3 adults came in, with one older looking woman.
just as i was about to get up the daughter of the granny was like HEY YOUNG MAN GET UP LET THE OLD GRANNY SIT!" im like wtf.. i was about to get up but i always get too shocked by shit like this to respond fast enough -__- haha but i was so angry cuz i alawys get up on transport and stuff for people to sit..
fucking idiot bitch esjlfkasdAJSK!@@:@:@:@:
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