Choice: focusing on taking or on giving
[thoughts from the Other Side by ~Sha’Tara~ ]
I got a phone call last night. The caller informed me that a former mutual acquaintance had been found dead in his house. Someone reported the fact that he hadn’t been at work for a few days, did not answer his phone and had not been seen by anyone. When the authorities found him, he’d been dead for several days.
Sad, right? But how sad? This character was a drug addict. He swindled the woman he had been living with of $250,000 which he then promptly gambled away. Everything this man did was utterly selfish. I knew him well, being a friend of the woman in question. Yes, he had his moments of desire to help others, but the sum total of those moments would never come close to balancing the spreadsheet of give and take. He took because his “needs” superceded the needs of another, or others.
In other words, this man was a user as well as a substance abuser. In the end his selfishness killed him. Regardless of who you are, you make your choices, then you live with them, then sooner or later die by them. You are what you do.
There is something inside all of us that prompts us to “feel sorry” when we hear about the death of someone we were, or are, acquainted with. That prompting is emotional. It’s a feel thing, a gut thing. It isn’t thinking or logical. If allowed it would supercede all of our common sense and plunge us into a maudlin sort of depression. He’s dead, wow, how sad. Suddenly we want to forget our real-life experiences with this character and allow this emotion to take over; to make us feel sorry.
If we stopped for a moment to analyze this feeling we would realize we’re feeling sorry for ourselves more than for the other character. His death is a reminder that ours is next. No way out. Whether we live a “good” life or a “bad” one, the end result is the same: death.
A quote from the movie, The Grand Budapest Hotel: “There is really no point in doing anything in this life because it’s over in the blink of an eye, then rigor mortis sets in.”
Interesting observation, but who can avoid doing anything? If you’re alive, in the material, physical sense, you are, of necessity doing something. Even if you’re in a coma, your condition attracts others to you, to care for your physical needs, so you’re doing something: you are motivating others.
The choice comes down to this: focusing on taking, or on giving. And the reasoning behind that choice has to be a completely individual one. The man in question chose to indulge his baser desires and inherited the typical consequences of his choices. There is nothing to be sorry about.
“Those who sow the wind reap the whirlwind” (Paraphrase from Hosea 8:7 – Bible)
Being Dead 4 Times Answer Is:
Do Not Fear Death Is Inevitable-
Fear Where You Are Going...
TRASK...
TRASK...
hug
Kathy
When one thinks about all the progress we have made, it is only those that have worked hard and given all they had, their talent and their skills to build up what we call "civilization." And then, there are the users and abusers who selfishly contribute nothing in their lives of making others miserable. In a more primitive society, these people were dealt with harshly and sometimes thrown out of the tribe or shunned. Unfortunately, modern society has all kinds of "safety nets" so that these kinds of miscreants can continue to abuse while under the protection of the government.
Ron
ChipB.
Great article Regis.
Love ya!
Jane