Dont know how to really feel about this story. On the one hand, I am really impressed by this man's work ethic and loyalty. On the other hand, I cant help but feel a little depressed that this man didnt get a little more time to enjoy his retirement. All in all though, 100 years on this earth seems to be a pretty full life. I just hope im not in the position that working into my triple digit years has to be a thought.



http://www.cnn.com/2006/US/04/14/100yrold.obit.ap/index.html?section=cnn_topstories

This is why I hate the American work ethic. It produces lives like this, and makes my own life harder as a result. This is the twenty first century, you would think that we would have figured out how to work smarter and not harder.

This man is not to be admired, he is to be pitied.

Dont know how to really feel about this story. On the one hand, I am really impressed by this man's work ethic and loyalty. On the other hand, I cant help but feel a little depressed that this man didnt get a little more time to enjoy his retirement.

Anyone who works until he's 100 years old obviously wanted to spend his life working, so I think he enjoyed himself quite a bit.

This man is not to be admired, he is to be pitied.

Why does he need your pity? Or why do you feel the need to pity him?

Why does he need your pity? Or why do you feel the need to pity him?

Nobody needs pity. Pity is for those pitying, not for the pitied. I say he has led a pitiful life. That allows me to coalesce mixed feelings on a topic (the American work ethic) and decide that I do not want that kind of life. Doing so gives me power over my life.

I say he has led a pitiful life.

He'd probably say differently; strikes me as a pretty happy fellow.

Oh, I'm liking the avatar Lionel. "We are the priests, of the temple, of Syrinx..." :thumbs:

I'm not too interested in what he might say about it, or what anyone does about the Protestant work ethic. On that, my mind is closed.

I'm not too interested in what he might say about it, or what anyone does about the Protestant work ethic. On that, my mind is closed.

Why does it bother you that someone did what they wanted with their life? If he was happy, that is what mattered.

If he was happy, that is what mattered.

What matters to him and what matters to me are completely different. I am not interested in mere happiness. I want to be great. Greatness drives me, defines me. If I end this life without being recognized as a great man, I will consider my life to be a failure. Mere happiness is a pursuit of small men. There is nothing wrong with being small, but I do not wish to remain small.

Why does it bother you that someone did what they wanted with their life?

What bothers me is that this man's life was defined by such a distasteful philosophy. It is important to me that people should find the best philosophy their minds are capable of and live them without reservation. Nothing pains me more than to see poor philosophies exalted to the point where they destroy lives. In my opinion, the man lived inside of a prison his whole life. Happiness can enslave a person even more effectively than iron bars can. A person has a chance of escaping a physical prison, if he desires it enough. Not so with a prison of happiness. Such a situation is doomed to make a person comfortable and complacent, never even wanting to peek outside the shell and see what he is missing.

Work keeps a person alive. I've seen many examples of this in my lifetime.
Say, a retired person, in good health, dead within months of retirement, because they had nothing to do, nothing in which to occupy their time, nothing to get up for, nothing to look forward to, nothing to strive for.

Secrets of a happy life:
Something to do, someone to love, something to look forward to.
Elvis Presley (believe it or not)

I think the man was very, very lucky and led a great life. Retirement is not for everyone. Some of us enjoy it and some don't. I love being retired but I have friends who love continuing to work just as much as I enjoy not working.

Napsterbater, I love your posts. They are so full of enthusiasm coupled with inconsistancy that I always look forward to them. One never knows just what to expect from one of your posts.

You try to put yourself forward as some sort of nihilist but in the next sentence you declare that you want to be great and will view your life as a failure if you aren't great. You sound just like some little kid who says, "I want to be a cowboy when I grow up. If I can't be a cowboy I don't want to grow up."

You still keep busy and useful tho, Frogger!
You have hobbies, yr family, books to learn something from.
People who sit on their butts and do nothing are pretty unhappy folk, I've found.

The main problem with retirement is that I don't ever seem to have enough time to do what I want to do.

You sound just like some little kid who says, "I want to be a cowboy when I grow up. If I can't be a cowboy I don't want to grow up."

:D Haha, I wouldn't have it any other way. And it isn't cowboy, it's rock star. I'm going to be taking voice lessons soon. I have experience with two instruments, the piano and the violin, but I can't really play either of them. I figure I'll learn to sing, then join some band and get experience and pick up more instruments. Then I'll move in my own direction by either starting my own band, or being my own band by singing all the parts and playing all the instruments.

I never trained my mind like lots of people do to be consistant. Instead I prefer to let it wander and attack whatever it wants to at the time.

The main problem with retirement is that I don't ever seem to have enough time to do what I want to do.

That's weird, I find I have more than enough time to do what I need to, even when I'm working. There are always times when I find myself idle wondering, "Well, if only I had something constructive to do..." Even when I used to have lots of activities around my place like a piano to practice on, literature and materials to learn Japanese, martial arts to practice and attend classes on, and a group of friends to hang out with, I never felt busy. I never had to refuse friends who wanted to do stuff.

What matters to him and what matters to me are completely different. I am not interested in mere happiness. I want to be great. Greatness drives me, defines me. If I end this life without being recognized as a great man, I will consider my life to be a failure. Mere happiness is a pursuit of small men. There is nothing wrong with being small, but I do not wish to remain small.



What bothers me is that this man's life was defined by such a distasteful philosophy. It is important to me that people should find the best philosophy their minds are capable of and live them without reservation. Nothing pains me more than to see poor philosophies exalted to the point where they destroy lives. In my opinion, the man lived inside of a prison his whole life. Happiness can enslave a person even more effectively than iron bars can. A person has a chance of escaping a physical prison, if he desires it enough. Not so with a prison of happiness. Such a situation is doomed to make a person comfortable and complacent, never even wanting to peek outside the shell and see what he is missing.

Your outlook reminds me of a newspaper article I read about an advanced school for bright children and they were looking up some of their old students and they found a guy whose IQ was off the chart. They found him some 10 years later and he was working at a car park. He liked the job because he could spend all day reading.

It seems he spends his whole life trapped inside a book while the train conductor spend his whole life serving and interacting with other people. I think his long years reveals that he took the correct path.

Your outlook reminds me of a newspaper article I read about an advanced school for bright children and they were looking up some of their old students and they found a guy whose IQ was off the chart. They found him some 10 years later and he was working at a car park. He liked the job because he could spend all day reading.

Society really cannot deal with people that smart. They often cannot fend for themselves, and rely on society's judgement to put him in the place where he would do the most good. Society failed him, so he had to make his own life. He chose to escape into the world of books. I see it all the time, people who would be far better served and serving in positions that desperately need smart people like them doing stupid shit because society is too stupid themselves to recognize them, instead demanding that they "do it themselves." My life will probably follow that road, but, I have the irrational hope that I can beat the system and the odds and make for myself a life that the whole world envies.

It seems he spends his whole life trapped inside a book while the train conductor spend his whole life serving and interacting with other people. I think his long years reveals that he took the correct path.

That's probably good enough for him, but lots of people spend their entire lives serving and interacting with people, and also get to see a lot more of what life has to offer. The man missed only a day of work in seventy years. He never travelled, pursued hobbies, and likely had the same wife his whole life. He lived long and happy, but for me that is not enough.

Society really cannot deal with people that smart. They often cannot fend for themselves, and rely on society's judgement to put him in the place where he would do the most good. Society failed him, so he had to make his own life. He chose to escape into the world of books. I see it all the time, people who would be far better served and serving in positions that desperately need smart people like them doing stupid shit because society is too stupid themselves to recognize them, instead demanding that they "do it themselves." My life will probably follow that road, but, I have the irrational hope that I can beat the system and the odds and make for myself a life that the whole world envies.



That's probably good enough for him, but lots of people spend their entire lives serving and interacting with people, and also get to see a lot more of what life has to offer. The man missed only a day of work in seventy years. He never travelled, pursued hobbies, and likely had the same wife his whole life. He lived long and happy, but for me that is not enough.

Nabster,

I worked with a 6'6" blond blue eyed genuis pollock. When the boss was writing a report Ed would tell the boss how to spell words, their meaning and how they could be used in a sentence. One day the boss made the mistake of asking someone where his dictionary was. Pollock heard that and Never ever gave a word definition again. He gave the boss a dictionary, Pollock was not a dictionary, he was a person, I say he was sensitive. He was also annoyed that he got the same pay as us common folks.

When we entered a restaurant everybody noticed the tall, atheletic built, well dressed man and the waitress seemed over whelmed by his presence and she spilled something. The big pollock, says loudly, "incompentence, everywhere I go I see incompentence!". Later the big pollock asked me why the waitress hated him? I said, "you are the genius, you figure it out". He didn't have a clue. I marveled at how a man so smart could not understand the feelings of a young girl.

I know a guy that worked with Wherner von braun the rocket scientest and there were people surrounding him all the time to make sure he ate regular and didn't walk infront of a car. He just didn't care about trivial things.

Society, very often, is too weak to see through a person's eccentricities, and to recognize a person for what he could be, instead of what he is today. Smart people are all too often extremely introverted, and get blamed for the way their brains work.

Smart people feel that they are better than the people around them because the only way they have to deal with the world is through their excessive intelligence. It is a human failing that people should really be more understanding of.

Later the big pollock asked me why the waitress hated him? I said, "you are the genius, you figure it out". He didn't have a clue. I marveled at how a man so smart could not understand the feelings of a young girl.

Introverts lack social skills because their brains aren't oriented in a way that allows them to pick them up alongside their extroverted peers when they are younger. They are also much more sensitive to abuse and general stimulus than extroverts. When he was younger, he more often than not probably clammed up whenever he would perceive a slight, instead of working his differences out like his more assertive peers. We label such things shyness, introversion, and think that the way to draw them out is to be even more abusive and stimulating, because that is often helpful with other extroverts, but it can quickly force an introvert into a shell he will never emerge from.

Introverts can often reverse this trend when they are older, particularly the moderately intelligent ones. But instead of being assertive, they are often overly aggressive and abusive, because they never learned those social skills as kids, and it's a thousand times harder to learn them as an adult as it is to learn them as a kid. That's what therapy is, and it probably didn't exist in the time period your story takes place, at least, not in any real form, anyway.

Society, very often, is too weak to see through a person's eccentricities, and to recognize a person for what he could be, instead of what he is today. Smart people are all too often extremely introverted, and get blamed for the way their brains work.

Smart people feel that they are better than the people around them because the only way they have to deal with the world is through their excessive intelligence. It is a human failing that people should really be more understanding of.

That is probably true, Hitler noticed Wherner Von braun and put his brains to work for Germany. I am sure the Major colleges are looking for brainy people to be trained for the needs of government and company jobs.

Would you call Thomas Edison a brainy person or just a clever practical man?

A very clever, very practical man, mixed with moderate, but not overly high intelligence. I did a book report on Edison once in grade school, and his story stuck with me ever since.

I am sure the Major colleges are looking for brainy people to be trained for the needs of government and company jobs.

Most definitely. I was recognized when I was younger by my father's best friend as a highly intelligent person who would do best in a government setting with the whole resources of the nation at my back to solve hard problems. After he retired from the military he went to work for a private corporation that does a lot of work for the military designing computer programs for weapons systems. He offered to put me up in Pennsylvania where he worked while I got into college and interned at his company. I accepted, and drove up to Johnstown, Pennsylvania to attempt to make a life there. I checked out the school, made some preliminary attempts to get in for the fall semester of last year, but found out that I wouldn't be able to intern at his company until after I got into school, meaning that I would have to get a regular job until then.

I also found out that Johnstown sucked balls, and the extremely shitty economy forced me to do the thing I always hated to do, look hard for a job, because my benefactor was bugging me for rent money. Everywhere I went people asked me why the fuck I would ever choose to come here. One guy said his company was looking for people to do some work in a job I had experience in. I dropped off a resume, but never heard from him again, even after a bunch of attempts to visit him. (his house was a short walk from here) I was told I would be introduced to a pretty young lady my age who would show me around. That never happened, and I was too shy to inquire further about it. Everybody around me was failing me and I wasn't about to go to extraordinary efforts to make this work, because it wasn't the first time the people around me failed me like that. So I decided that if I was forced to go to that kind of effort, I would rather do it in a place I liked and enjoyed instead of a has-been shit town. So I picked up and moved.

On that, my mind is closed.


*mumbles something about swimming in shallow waters*

Are you calling my distaste for drudge and tedium fear?

Are you calling my distaste for drudge and tedium fear?
I don't know, what do you think?

What matters to him and what matters to me are completely different. I am not interested in mere happiness. I want to be great. Greatness drives me, defines me. If I end this life without being recognized as a great man, I will consider my life to be a failure. Mere happiness is a pursuit of small men. There is nothing wrong with being small, but I do not wish to remain small.

What exactly are the pursuits of a great man?

I don't know, what do you think?

I am thinking this: :rolleyes:

What exactly are the pursuits of a great man?

It doesn't matter what he pursues, it only matters that he does them greatly. I choose to pursue the things I think kick ass; great romance, great music, great dancing, great martial arts, great creativity. Those are things I think require the greatest amounts of all kinds of intelligences, and challenge people the most.

I think this is a wonderful story.........

Sad,very sad,,,,but this man lived for work,,,in my opinion it was work that kept him alive,,,some people need to live thier life knowing they are valued,,,i believe he would have worked for free if he thought he was needed......

You are probably right, Red. If I enjoy the work, and it doesn't take too much time or effort, I would work for free too.

LOL.......

Hell NO,not me,i would never work for free ,,no matter how much i enjoy it. ........:D

I even charge my Hubby.... :rolleyes:

LOL.......

Hell NO,not me,i would never work for free ,,no matter how much i enjoy it. ........:D

I even charge my Hubby.... :rolleyes:

Hmmm is love work? Do you charge for cooking and cleaning. Most women just take his pay check and he has to beg for cigarette and gas money.

A woman who charged less than the whole paycheck would be a treasure.

Hmmm is love work? Do you charge for cooking and cleaning. Most women just take his pay check and he has to beg for cigarette and gas money.

A woman who charged less than the whole paycheck would be a treasure.


Old Reb...........

Depending on how energetic he feels Love can be VERY hard work !!! :rolleyes:

I dont charge him for cookin and cleaning,,,,im a part time nurse and a part time house wife,,,,,,,its my job to cook and clean,,,,,,,,,its the added extra's he wants me to do that i charge him for....;)

As for money....

I dont get any of his money,,,,,i earn my own.....

Its when ive spent all my own that i do added extras and charge him,,lol...

You follow me ??

Old Reb...........

Depending on how energetic he feels Love can be VERY hard work !!! :rolleyes:

I dont charge him for cookin and cleaning,,,,im a part time nurse and a part time house wife,,,,,,,its my job to cook and clean,,,,,,,,,its the added extra's he wants me to do that i charge him for....;)

As for money....

I dont get any of his money,,,,,i earn my own.....

Its when ive spent all my own that i do added extras and charge him,,lol...

You follow me ??
Your husband is a lucky man.

Keep dreaming Nap,its part of your American upbringing,

Keep dreaming Nap,its part of your American upbringing,Is that a good thing, or a bad thing?

Both............

:rolleyes:

Euripides is full of shit..

Euripides is full of shit..
Apperently he is not alone...

Right on,I forgot,and anyone who quotes him..