Happiness

[aserendipity]

After last night
OMG
just was coming home got off freeway busy Mill Valley/Tiburon intersection and my brakes gave out
nothing rational worked ..4ways of vehicles coming at me
And of course I was thinking Bond movie
so I Stomped on the horn and went flipping around ahead like the movies have taught me
alive and shaky
so today drinking tea and reading some of the eloquent messages on forums of note , I look around and think life and living is GOOD
Happiness is the topic today
xoA.

[jkisha]

Glad you're ok.

[maryanimal]

Good driving skills aserendipity! I like this thread!

Happiness is having a great friend!

[AntiM]

Happy, yes!

[aserendipity]

this concept of "happiness" is not just a put a smile on your face, rather it is a core soul touching need to feel
go deep my friends
touch inside you that; it is great need to to eat, drink, sleep, and experience happiness.
My dinner was delicious; and although I am scared to drive on those brakes again, today I want to try ..
xoA.

[Jackass]

You got away with it one time and that's awesome, but how many times do you want to perform that Michael Knight stunt?!?

Go get your brakes checked out! Damn it!

[aserendipity]

so I went down the hill this morning with great trepidation ..yes, I am usually a pussy..but hey when it counts I grow temporary big balls.
happiness !
sparkleponies grow.
xoA.

[Jackass]

So you don't know what happened, but your going to keep driving on it anyways?? Safety third, they always say!

[Ugly Dougly]

Nothing makes life taste sweeter than peering over the edge of The Abyss.

Glad you came back safe.

[aserendipity]

Of course I know what happened. I am a pussy but not stupid...I left the e-brake on, and it was too hot to let the front brakes function. Today went in to check it out . No further problems. My e-brake is now "skuffed" (that is a new word for me) clean and the brakes are good. What I was attempting to discuss is that I went forward instead of crashing when I couldnt stop.
YES ! Life is good and maybe I need to be a more careful Pussy.

[Savannah]

Glad you're okay.

[aserendipity]

Thank You all for your messages !
I do think it was a really big moment of change for me.
And now maybe we can discuss this thread of Happiness. It may be several layers thicker than a simple veneer .
Today while my car Dr. was checking my car I spent time hanging with old friends , really old friends , who love Palin et al. My attempts to comfort them while not screaming my rebuttals came from a deep sense of personal happiness. I really do think we can promote solutions with less conflict.
xoA.

[Ugly Dougly]

Yes, why don't you relax in this comfy couch and tell the good doctor how you feel about all this.

We are so often insulated from our own mortality. We think that's a good thing, but in some ways it cripples us.

I like hearing about this, your new outlook (not that there was anything wrong with your old outlook.)

[ygmir]

Yes, why don't you relax in this comfy couch and tell the good doctor how you feel about all this.

We are so often insulated from our own mortality. We think that's a good thing, but in some ways it cripples us.

I like hearing about this, your new outlook (not that there was anything wrong with your old outlook.)

indeed Dougly...........people get to detached from pain, danger, and death. Living with them, dancing, and laughing, keeps one alive . and, when death finally wins, we can hope we're scarred, bruised, broken and worn out.........smiling and drooling as we relive it all.

This, of course is just my opinion.......but as noted elsewhere here, I can speak from experience, coming close to death, accidental, horrid, sudden death, keeps ya as sharp as you can be...........and happy and thankful for the moments and people we have.

[Simon of the Playa]

after shaking hands with mr. death, everything has more clarity and vibrancy.


however, the feeling is quickly forgotten.


thats the problem, and probably why adrenaline junkies do what they do.


each day as your last, you never fucking know, now do you.

[wh..sh]

Hmm.. the closest I came shaking hands with Mr.death was when I went all alone, to pick up JS and his girl.

[Ugly Dougly]

JS? There's a story there, I suspect.

Hmm... yas...
I seem to recall yours truly, on an archaeological expedition to San Clemente Island, which is a wild and rugged island off the coast of southern California, owned by the US Navy.

We were tasked with surveying old native American (Chumash) home sites.

Well, it was evening; the archaeology crew was settled down in the Navy barracks. Ugly Dougly decided to take a walk around the local "base", which was just the crazy rugged landscape that the Navy decided was their home.

As I walked out in the dark... suddenly the ground was gone. I was like Wile E. Coyote in one of those cartoons. As I fell, both of my hands just happened to land on rock ledges on either side of a fucking chasm. I hung there for a moment, grasping my mortality.

As I staggered back to my bunk, I realized that if I had eaten it (which I would have done without some sort of luck), with various broken limbs, nobody would have a clue as to my whereabouts. It was quite a thrill.

[aserendipity]

JS
Navy
tell more please !
happiness is survival

[ygmir]

JS
Navy
tell more please !
happiness is survival

there's a thread........viewtopic.php?f=56&t=32509

[graidawg]

is this happiness or the joy of surviving? i have done both, but have of late been thinking about the nature of happiness
* waits for response before disclosing personal thoughts on the matter*

[aserendipity]

Graidawg what are you saying ?

[AntiM]

San Clemente, eek!

My brush with death was not exciting, it was a peaceful, calm zone, letting go of everything. I was bleeding to death internally, it hurt briefly, like a bad gas pain, then... almost bliss. Knowledge I was going, but no fear. Not thrilling for me, but certainly for my shipmates who were freaking out as I lay on the floor and asked to go to the ER. Lack of blood to the brain without the adrenalin rush is interesting. No angles, white light or tunnels, but I was getting there fast.

[graidawg]

well surviving death brings a certain....clarity? to life but day to day happiness and really understanding what makes you happy is a different thing entirely

[Dr. Pyro]

I've been struck by lightning. Does that count? And believe me, it's not as much fun as it sounds.

[graidawg]

I've been struck by lightning. Does that count? And believe me, it's not as much fun as it sounds.

YOU FUCKING WHAT? that is a story i would tell every single day! tell us more

[Dr. Pyro]

If you insist. It was August, 1984 and me and a buddy were fishing (which has nothing to do with actually catching fish) up above Lake Almanor, near the town of Chester, CA. We could hear this boom-boom-boom but thought they were blasting the roads prior to paving. We were on a granite outcasting in, for want of a better word, like a volcano in the sense that if you look up from the lake all you can see is the top of the mountain all around you. All of the sudden black clouds blew in and the temperture dropped about 30 degrees in a moment; similar to opening a freezer door. Then it happened. Lightning strikes every couple of seconds and we see dozens of people running like hell away from the lake. It was hailing and raining and after trying to "hide" from the weather under a small granite overhang, we started running down what was just moments ago a nice path but had turned into a rushing river. All of the sudden there was a deafening BOOM! and I get hit by the bolt. Imagine the brightest light you've ever seen exploding inside of your brain. It was as if I had been hit in the back with a 4X4, all of the air was sucked out of my lungs and it flung me maybe 20 feet. I hit this ground, which really was mostly granite and dirt, and my buddy turned around and yelled, "JIM!" I couldn't respond. He came and literally had to pry my fingers out of the granite and together we made it back to the truck, leaving our fishing gear and beer behind. I had hundreds of small cuts, maybe three inches long, all over my body. But for the most part I was fine. Turns out lightning has the main bolt (which would have cut me in two) and "fingers" along side. That's what got me. We hightailed it the hell out of there and didn't stop until we got to Chico. Turned out the same storm a short while later killed four climbers on El Capitan in Yosemite from lightning. Not the most pleasant day I've ever had. Thankfully we had more beer in the truck.

[graidawg]

If you insist. It was August, 1984 and me and a buddy were fishing (which has nothing to do with actually catching fish) up above Lake Almanor, near the town of Chester, CA. We could hear this boom-boom-boom but thought they were blasting the roads prior to paving. We were on a granite outcasting in, for want of a better word, like a volcano in the sense that if you look up from the lake all you can see is the top of the mountain all around you. All of the sudden black clouds blew in and the temperture dropped about 30 degrees in a moment; similar to opening a freezer door. Then it happened. Lightning strikes every couple of seconds and we see dozens of people running like hell away from the lake. It was hailing and raining and after trying to "hide" from the weather under a small granite overhang, we started running down what was just moments ago a nice path but had turned into a rushing river. All of the sudden there was a deafening BOOM! and I get hit by the bolt. Imagine the brightest light you've ever seen exploding inside of your brain. It was as if I had been hit in the back with a 4X4, all of the air was sucked out of my lungs and it flung me maybe 20 feet. I hit this ground, which really was mostly granite and dirt, and my buddy turned around and yelled, "JIM!" I couldn't respond. He came and literally had to pry my fingers out of the granite and together we made it back to the truck, leaving our fishing gear and beer behind. I had hundreds of small cuts, maybe three inches long, all over my body. But for the most part I was fine. Turns out lightning has the main bolt (which would have cut me in two) and "fingers" along side. That's what got me. We hightailed it the hell out of there and didn't stop until we got to Chico. Turned out the same storm a short while later killed four climbers on El Capitan in Yosemite from lightning. Not the most pleasant day I've ever had. Thankfully we had more beer in the truck.

MY HERO!

[ygmir]

Doc:
do you know John Hughs, or Howard Deutch?

[Dr. Pyro]

Can't say that I do. Should I?

[ygmir]

just thinking of a character in a movie, they wrote and directed, that could have been based on you and that story.
hahaa