Possum Living and the Meaning of Life (Earth, soul, choice)

[MidnightBlue]

One of my favorite books is Dolly Freed's Possum Living: How to Live Well Without a Job and With Almost No Money. She says:

We just drift along from day to day. We have a roof over our heads, clothes to wear, and we eat and drink well. ...

Sometimes Daddy frets and says we are little better than possums living this way. ...

So we live like possums? Good! Let us do so even more!

Questions:

Do you have to have goals to have a good life? What kind of goals are important?

Do goals distract from mindful living?

Is there a deeper meaning to life that people should try to discover?

Should life have different meanings for different people? Should you discover or contrive the unique meaning of your own life?

[Vjkingjr]

Originally Posted by MidnightBlue

One of my favorite books is Dolly Freed's Possum Living: How to Live Well Without a Job and With Almost No Money. She says:

We just drift along from day to day. We have a roof over our heads, clothes to wear, and we eat and drink well. ...

Sometimes Daddy frets and says we are little better than possums living this way. ...

So we live like possums? Good! Let us do so even more!

Questions:

Do you have to have goals to have a good life? What kind of goals are important?

I believe so. My goal since i was about 6 was to be up on stage playing my guitar infront of thousands of people. I worked towards that goal - and i succeeded. I think if you dont have goals in life, you will lack in confidence and have the "i cant do that" attitude.

Do goal distract from mindful living?

I think you need to have a balance between the both. Maybe have a few goals that are mindful - and will help others. A few Biblical quotes:

Proverbs 10:4 He who has a slack hand becomes poor, but the hand of the diligent makes rich.

Proverbs 10:16 The labor of the righteous leads to life, the wages of the wicked to sin.

Proverbs 13:4 The soul of a lazy man desires, and has nothing; But the soul of the dilligent shall be made rich.

Proverbs 14:23 In all labor there is profit, But idle chatter leads only to poverty.

What this is saying is, in order to live a mindful life you need to work hard. If you have no goals in life you are most likely going to be living off government pay. So you need goals - you need to have dreams. And you need to believe in yourself. In order to become mindful of others and what they had to do to achieve their goals, you must go through the hard yards yourself. I am a musician by the way, and i think what God has given me is a gift. So i go and set goals and achieve them; because one day i will be able to use that gift as a way of reaching the unreachable and preaching to those who have not been able to afford a Bible etc. And if you think about it - my goals will effect others and other peoples lifes. And if i work hard to achieve my goals - I will benefit, and so will others. So work hard! and play hard!

Is there a deeper meaning to life that people should try to discover?

Well i believe the meaning to life is choice. We can choose to do the right thing..or we can choose not to. We can choose to follow Gods ways..or we can choose not to. Each and every individual is given a life of choice. Its up to you what you do with yours.

Should life have different meanings for different people? Should you discover or contrive the unique meaning of your own life?

Everybody is put on this place called earth for a reason. Everyone has their strengths and their weaknesses..its what we do with our strengths that benefit ourselves and others.

I hope this has helped
VJ

[Random]

We all want what we cannot have.

[Vjkingjr]

Well i guess it comes down to if your goals are constructive or not. If you have a goal to be the biggest drug dealer on the planet - that will distract you from mindful living. But if you have a goal to be a wise guy and use your wisdom to help others learn - that would not distract you from mindful living.

[MidnightBlue]

I have goals, and I think it's okay -- necessary, even -- to have goals, but at the same time, I think it's important not to be so focused on the destination that you don't enjoy the ride. I also think it's a good idea to be flexible about your goals.

[Vjkingjr]

Spot on!

[Victor]

Originally Posted by MidnightBlue

I have goals, and I think it's okay -- necessary, even -- to have goals, but at the same time, I think it's important not to be so focused on the destination that you don't enjoy the ride. I also think it's a good idea to be flexible about your goals.

That's very similar to the way I live my life. It made reaching my goals that much more enjoyable. On other hand, it can also devalue something you used to value.

[Anti-World]

I find the phrase "Possum Living" ironic because possum in Latin literally means, "I am able."

Thinking of this I clicked on the thread... Thinking that it was about people living simply because they are able. Doing things simply because they can. So it turned out ironic because you are writing about people that *don't* do things just because they are able.

My head was swimming with amusing little semantic meanings but I'll stop boring you now with my short fascination.


Life is, and always will be, the sole ownership of the mind. What meaning is is therefore contrived completely off itself. So to ask me you could be asking me to change your mind or to simply amuse your mind. Perhaps that's what we are all trying to do.

This reminds me of a movie I watched just the other day called "Donnie Darko". I forget what the exact words were between Donnie and his shrink but she, the therapist, asked Donnie if he thought the world existed. He told her that he couldn't prove it, he could continue to weigh the pro's and con's but he could never find the answer so it was best just to stop thinking about it.


With that in mind, what is meaning? We are almost complete slaves to our environment. Almost.

Almost as in we have the ability to stop or go. We have the ability to hate the world and it's existence because we've realized how pointless it is. We could kill ourselves, there would be no relevant consequences, perhaps the world would even benefit from it. Or we could ignore that we can't ever do more than we've been made to do and do everything we *can* do. The choice has no morality. There is no God to tell you which is right. It has no rules or feelings. There's no questions and no answers. Stop or go. That's it.

Possum. Possum.


Do we need goals?
No.

Do goals distract from mindful living?
Mindful... I can only smile at that but can think of no real way to answer it more than I already have.

Meanings?
What you decide to do when your capable of doing anything. No matter what the action is your making an axiom all for yourself.

Forget everything you've ever heard, felt, seen, smelt, or tasted. Forget all your memories. Forget what you've been taught.

Now what's left? What are you now?

Goals, morality, life, and feelings... It's all a product of *your* own mind.




The bible wasn't a book to send us to heaven. It was a book to create one.




>.< I'm done rambling.

[Angelfire]

Originally Posted by MidnightBlue

One of my favorite books is Dolly Freed's Possum Living: How to Live Well Without a Job and With Almost No Money. She says:

We just drift along from day to day. We have a roof over our heads, clothes to wear, and we eat and drink well. ...

Sometimes Daddy frets and says we are little better than possums living this way. ...

So we live like possums? Good! Let us do so even more!

Questions:

Do you have to have goals to have a good life? What kind of goals are important?

Do goals distract from mindful living?

Is there a deeper meaning to life that people should try to discover?

Should life have different meanings for different people? Should you discover or contrive the unique meaning of your own life?

Without goals I'd never get anything done. Its nice some days to have nothing to do,
but at the end of those days I tend to look back and see it as a bit of a waste of time.

I think we all need a purpose in life, its what keeps us motivated and excited to be
alive. The most boring people I have met have been those that had nothing bigger
than themselves to think about.






peace

[eudaimonia]

Originally Posted by MidnightBlue

Do you have to have goals to have a good life? What kind of goals are important?

Hopefully, to avoid living like possums. At least, if that can be avoided reasonably and ethically. I see nothing superior in living without wealth or work.

My main goals are internal, though. External values are just means to an end. The end is my personal growth, self-actualization, and happiness.

Do goals distract from mindful living?

No, they are usually an aid to mindful living. One of the things one ought to be mindful of is where one is going.

Is there a deeper meaning to life that people should try to discover?

The deeper meaning to life is life itself.

Should life have different meanings for different people?

Absolutely. We are going to chose different purposes in life because we are all unique individuals.

Should you discover or contrive the unique meaning of your own life?

That would be wise.


eudaimonia,

Mark