Interesting thread, Terry - I would expect no less!
You've made me think, which is why I love JWD. To think and defend how you think is a great use of the mind, and yet so many seem to have missed that point!
I grew up with a ravenous intellect, and I mean that almost literally. I devoured books and magazines, and it was a real hunger in my mind that I felt. That passion has subsided very little over my life.
I tend to attack life with that same appetite for experience, along with a lot of humor and a very positive attitude.
Without any higher education, I've managed to carve out a successful writing career over the past decade to where now I'm editor of a 27,000 issue weekly. I edit, but also write features every week, do interviews, take photos, Photoshop the photos and do the layout and build the paper for the printing each week. It's very satisfying and interesting work.
In the past month I've written and photographed and published articles on localvoring; farmers' markets; a psychedelic, Iranian Sufi rock and roll concert by a babe named Haale; photographed a huge fireworks show; attended and wrote a review on a comedy night; did a piece interviewing actors for a major play production; and profiled a famous outside artist that was having a documentary filmed of his life, and I'll be in the documentary. So you can see, it's a great job I have, and I enjoy it very much.
I love food and sex with the same intensity, and I try to run several times a week, and work out regularly. When it comes to TV, I love documentaries and shows like the American Masters series on PBS and Anthony Bourdain's No Reservations. I'm fascinated and inspired by the loves of people who have DONE things - the artists and musicians and builders and writers. I love film, and we have a four at a time subscription to Netflix. Christ, Ioften go to sleep with a pair of earbuds on, listening to NPR, and I'll wake up and listen to it early in the morning! I worked as a carpenter for many years, and I've built a lot of furniture. I've worked as an auto mechanic, and when necessary, have torn down a motor or two to replace head gaskets. I love that hands on stuff.
What I want to feel when I die is that I LIVED every fucking second as fully as possible. I want to live lean and mean, muscle and bone - physically, intellectually, spiritually and emotionally. It's always been that I just can't seem to get enough. My ex-wife says that's what ended our marriage, and it certainly does have its drawbacks, for sure. Keeping that curiosity and drive under control is a challenge, and I have definitely failed at times. But - I would not change that. It is who I am.
I'm not encouraging or discouraging this kind of life. I agree that we'll all die and much of this will have been for naught, perhaps. But I'm not going to worry about what this will value me after I die. It's living my own life, and living it well that I'm focused on!
S4
Do you suffer INTELLECTUAL STARVATION?
by Terry 91 Replies latest jw friends
-
Seeker4
-
Bryan
I stay at home with out 2 year old.
I'm certain I have lost 30% of my higher vocabulary.
I do know many theme songs on NOGGIN, though!
CALGON...Take me away!
-
hillary_step
Seeker4,
I tend to attack life with that same appetite for experience, along with a lot of humor and a very positive attitude.
Without any higher education, I've managed to carve out a successful writing career over the past decade to where now I'm editor of a 27,000 issue weekly. I edit, but also write features every week, do interviews, take photos, Photoshop the photos and do the layout and build the paper for the printing each week. It's very satisfying and interesting work.
In the past month I've written and photographed and published articles on localvoring; farmers' markets; a psychedelic, Iranian Sufi rock and roll concert by a babe named Haale; photographed a huge fireworks show; attended and wrote a review on a comedy night; did a piece interviewing actors for a major play production; and profiled a famous outside artist that was having a documentary filmed of his life, and I'll be in the documentary. So you can see, it's a great job I have, and I enjoy it very much.
I love food and sex with the same intensity, and I try to run several times a week, and work out regularly. When it comes to TV, I love documentaries and shows like the American Masters series on PBS and Anthony Bourdain's No Reservations. I'm fascinated and inspired by the loves of people who have DONE things - the artists and musicians and builders and writers. I love film, and we have a four at a time subscription to Netflix. Christ, Ioften go to sleep with a pair of earbuds on, listening to NPR, and I'll wake up and listen to it early in the morning! I worked as a carpenter for many years, and I've built a lot of furniture. I've worked as an auto mechanic, and when necessary, have torn down a motor or two to replace head gaskets. I love that hands on stuff.Okay, I will buy you, but how many miles to the gallon do you do?
HS
-
cognizant dissident
I agree with most of what Terry said, but disagree when he lumps needlepoint in with all the other useless wastes of time. Needlepoint is a craft that produces a finished product which can be sold, given as gifts or displayed. It can be used as an expressive artform when one creates one's own designs or patterns. (Think of the impressive tapestries often found on the walls of medieval castles.)
I used to do needlepoint as a hobby when I was very young (a teenager) and gave many beautiful gifts to people who still hang them on their walls, years later. I have had people ask me to make them needlepoints for money. When my house was flooded and a couple of them were damaged by water, I had them valued and some of them appraised at over a thousand dollars. (More than the art prints I owned.)
It is true, needlepoint is not an intellectual pursuit. It is an artisan craft and should not be disparaged as such. I also value intellectual pursuits highly, study philosophy, science, write poetry, etc. Many artisans and trade people would consider much of this a waste of time since it produces nothing concrete of immediate practical usefulness (poetry for instance). Poetry, as I understand it, has been used for political purposes, to express conservative and revolutionary ideas and help sway the mass opinions, for many centuries.
Even when art, poetry, music, hobbies, etc are not used for practical or political purposes but only for enjoyment and to lift one's spirits, are they a useless, trivial waste of time? If a doctor or a nurse, studies science and medicine, spends their entire day trying to relieve the suffering of others out of compassion and duty to humanity, and then goes home physically and mentally exhausted, turns on the TV and watches a prime time soap opera or a celebrity gossip show or picks up People mag, a crossword puzzle, surfs the net, posts a fluff thread on JWD, to enjoy a few moments of enjoyable, mindless, escapism, who are we to judge and say they are wasting their time? Everyone needs downtime to relax and do nothing once in a while. That's all part of what makes life fun, enjoyable, beautiful and worth living.
Cog
-
changeling
Great thread Terry! I also believe that we should not waste life/intellect/time. Living life to the fullest and experienceing all we can is the way to go. Leaning, growing, changeing, re- inventing ourselves...this is what makes life rich and worth living.
changeling
-
Terry
I'm prejudiced against needlepoint because I was a custom picture framer for many years and absolutely despised framing them as gifts.
Watching people count the rows with a toothpick made my spleen hurt. I'm reactionary when it comes to OCD!
But, yes--it relaxes people and gives them an outlet of sorts.
But, do I really have to like it??
I think crocheting is more productive of "useful" creations.
If somebody gave me a needlepoint of "Footprints" I'd have to stifle the urge to drag them into a closet and put a plastic bag over their head.
Maybe I need to eat more ice cream!
-
cognizant dissident
Terry! You sound very tense and stressed out. Have you ever considered taking up a relaxing hobby? Perhaps needlepoint?
Cog (running for her life as Terry chases her with a plastic bag! )
ps: It's not the needlepoint. That "footprints" poem is just barfable!
-
proplog2
My Favorite Song:
One Hundred Years from Today
Words & Music by Ned Washington, Victor Young & Joe Young
Recorded by Maxine Sullivan, 1975
D Bm7 Bm7/E G G/F# A7
Don't save your kisses, just pass them around,
D6 B7 Em7 A7+5
You'll find my reason, logically sound,
D9 D7/9 G6/9 G5 Gm
Who's gonna know that you passed them around,
E7 Bm7-5 A7 Cdim A7 A7+5
One hundred years from today.
D Bm7 Bm7/E G G/F# A7 Edim
Why crave a penthouse, fit for a Queen,
D6 B7 Em7 A7+5
Your nearer heaven, on mother earth's green,
D9 D7/9 G6/9 G5 Gm
If you had millions what would they all mean,
E7 Bm7-5 A7 A7+5 D
One Hundred Years from today.
Bridge:
Am7 D9 Am7 D9
So laugh and sing, make love the king,
G6 Am7 D9 G6
Be happy while you may.
Bm7 E7 Bm7 E7
There's always one, beneath the sun,
A7 Em7 G/B A7 A7+5
Who's bound to make you feel that way,
D Bm7 Bm7/E G G/F# A7 Edim
The moon is shining, and that's a good sign,
D6 B7 Em7 A7+5
Cling to me closer, and say you'll be mine,
D9 D7/9 G6/9 G5 Gm
Remember baby we won't see it shine,
E7 Bm7-5 A7 A7+5 B7
One Hundred Years from today.
E7 Bm7-5 A7 A7+5 D6
One Hundred Years from today. -
Seeker4
HS -
I'm fairly economical and low maintenance! I run on about a liter of red wine and one ice filled tumbler of single malt Irish whiskey a day!
The major drawback of all that stuff is that I'm a generalist in most areas as opposed to an expert. There are a couple of things of life long interest, like writing, where I'm fine - I've written my million words and paid those dues - but in the rest, I'm adequate and talented perhaps, but no master!
The advantage of that is that I'm pretty comfortable in most situations - set me with a construction crew, musicians (I also play guitar), loggers, house painters, mechanics, writers, artists, businessmen - and I can hold my own. It's probably an ideal situation for a writer. I have this monthly gig where I do an in-depth interview for the state's largest business magazine. These are 6000 to 10,000 word pieces and up, and I'll interview everyone from the governor and his staff to leading business owners, commercial real estate brokers, large event planners, a newspaper editor turned minister, resort owners, developers, teacher of the year, nuclear power plant presidents, university presidents, the head of homeland security, the head of fish and wildlife - you get the picture. So being a generalist is the perfect way to be a specialist in my profession!
S4
-
WTWizard
I can think of the ultimate intellectual starvation. No, being on this forum is not it--at least you are warning, or helping to warn, others before they join a cult or helping those who already did to find their way out. The ultimate waste of intelligence is being one of Jehovah's Witnesses.
For them, life is controlled by those old fogeys in Brooklyn. They have those meetings that serve no purpose other than to indoctrinate them, retell the same story about how the tribulation and Armageddon will happen, and spread the virus to others. And service is canned. They tell you every word you are to say, and how to say it. With the tract work, all you get to do is hand the tract to the householder, ask them to read it, and write down the call. Magazine work is a little better: you make a brief summary of the article according to what the Watchtower Society has instructed you to. The "Bible" studies follow the Society's format, allowing little or no digression. No facet involves anything more complicated than making a peanut butter and jelly sandwich.
And they are effectively banned from pursuing anything that uses the brain. The independent Bible study groups are gone. Also, cross referencing the accuracy of the doctrine or the New World Translatoin is gone. College is by and large gone. Getting enough sleep so you can prepare for tests in school is forbidden. Hobbies that involve using the mind and the brain are effectively all banned. The Internet, which can be a great tool to get more information about curiosity subjects or cross-reference things, is as good as banned or probably will be once the Kool-Aid Puketowers come out. Our time is for the ministry, which has already been prepared by those old fogeys in Brooklyn.
I don't call it a waste when a person volitionally chooses to watch TV for entertainment, work on Soduko or crossword puzzles, surf the Net (and especially to do research on curiosity topics), or play video games. All involve some mental exercise. And there is nothing wrong with an occasional fluff pursuit. For sure, posting on this forum is not totally wasteful since there are many Dubs left that should be warned, as well as those thinking of entering, that could be stopped short of selling their mind for a cult. It is only wrong when a person who is able to think is stopped from doing so with the use of initiatory force, coercion, or fraud by another person or organization. And that's what the Watchtower Society is guilty of.