You Didn't Make It.
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- čas přidán 15. 07. 2024
- latest writing and video at robertsaltzman.substack.com
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I wanted to share a little story... I watched this video and then had to do the dishes. I remembered you said you even enjoyed doing the dishes. So there I was wondering what I was missing because I never have enjoyed doing the dishes. I really was trying so hard to see what I was missing. Then I got it. I really don't enjoy doing the dishes. You never said I should enjoy doing the dishes. I was telling myself I shouldn't be how I am. Then, apparently for pure bonus points, the dishes stopped being what they shouldn't be, too.
Your lack of a message telling me what should or shouldn't be is very much appreciated.
That's a good story. I am happy to hear it. Be well.
It's one of those stories with a sequel. The damn dishes got dirty again and I still don't like washing dishes. I would love saying I was not the doer of the dirty dishes, but I made the stir fry that made the dirty dishes. In a lawsuit, any jury would return a fast guilty verdict based on that evidence. However, the jury would still be out if my defense lawyer made the strong argument that I did make the stir fry that caused the dirty dishes but I didn't make this flow of life that made me hungry. The judge would then want to throw the argument out based on the grounds that it would set a precedent that just screws everything up but my lawyer would say the judge will probably still allow it because I was only suing myself the whole damn time.
@@bubbhaspeaks537 🤣😎
Thank you, Robert! You are so clear. Much appreciation. 🙏🏽❤️
You are so welcome, Rita.
"You can just be"' it seems like you don't even have to just be, it's just....be lol. In other words just being, isn't something I do, as you would probably say, it's what I am, it's all me. Idk if you would agree or not, that's what it seems like to me.
Hi, Leo. When I say "you can just be," the word "you" functions as a so-called "indexical"--a word that points without in any way defining. As I use the word "you" (or "myself"), that has no choice but to just be, because it refers to everything of which we are aware in each moment, outside of which we know nothing.
@@RobertSaltzman Yes, well said. "What you are, you already are", that may be my favorite quote.
I suspect as so often the person just 'going with the flow' can do so because they are successful and comfortable with nothing much to worry about. I'd probably be pretty chilled if I were a successful photographer-turned-psychotherapist with a late burgeoning writer/advisor persona (rather than a penniless over 60 societal discard). I know many cashed-up retirees with no spiritual or philosophical or existential notions in mind who are pretty much like Robert. They don't need to think hard about their actions, because nothing presses on them to think at all. Where I live there is an increasing number of penniless and homeless people, many are women over 50, dumped by the State on the streets for the first time in their lives (essentially for the benefit of the rentier landlord class - to maintain the feasibility of the investor housing market). They're not going to be able to 'go with the flow' because basic survival is at stake and presents a succession of irresolvible problems. The middle class and the comfortable entertain a number of ideas to keep thoughts of the less fortunate at bay. Sometimes plain old meritocratic capitalism ("they deserve their condition"). Sometimes the various spiritual and existential ideas of the satsanger class ("it doesn't matter that I'm comfortable and they're miserable - it just all is"). But the all have the same self-justificatory function - 'ideology' in Marxist terms.
I understand this critique, and there is something to it. It is easier to go with the flow when the rent is paid, and food is on the table. But putting this kind of conversation in Marxist terms obscures the fact that countless people living in precarious situations also understand these matters in the way I do, and apparently, you do not. That seems to escape you entirely.
You. bracket me with some retirees, you know. That's absurd. You know nothing about me except what you imagine.
@@RobertSaltzman "countless people living in precarious situations also understand these matters in the way I do". I don't believe that. I haven't witnessed it, and having spent most of my lifetime in and around disadvantage, if It were true I suspect I would have. I have however seen endless repeats of this kind of non-doer relaxed perspective from people very obviously comfortable. And often making a very good living by said repetition (I don't mean you).
"You. bracket me with some retirees, you know. That's absurd.". Agreed. It's just a contentious style. Developed as a young man who had no other means to get noticed, and never quite outgrown, to my regret on occasion. Don't take it personally.
@fakirfarkomungo6539 I don't take comments on social media personally. Personal means you know someone personally.
I have known people with all money in the world who were desperately troubled--some of them were my patients back in the day--and I have known people who lived freely and without anxiety in extremely humble circumstances. If you don't, perhaps you need a wider pool of acquaintances.
@@RobertSaltzman Believe me, in the 2 countries I've lived in, 'wider pools of acquanitances' aren't permitted to people like me. No-one will talk to anyone who can't afford a coffee with them. At 61, in a pool of people with a life expectancy of about 55, it's vanishingly unlikely I'll live long enough to make more friends at this stage.