Korean Job Discussion Forums

[KirbyMagnus]

Sorry, I think my little rant earlier may have derailed this thread. I have calmed down a bit now. Yesterday I had a thumping headache.

I think life is the quest for a place where you can feel content. I know that contentment is death but I think that once you are of a certain age it is probably time to choose a place from amongst those you have experienced and settle down.

I don't think there is anything wrong with settling down but I think it is important you see the world first.

I do feel envious of some of my friends who have married young and seem to happy and succesful. But after I came to Korea many of them said they were envious of me and wished they could still do something like that.

I'm sorry I cannot add anything more cerebral to this thread. I think that considering many of the people posting here obviously had a sense of wanderlust and were not content to settle in their own countries (yet) it would be interesting to hear peoples thoughts on settling down.

I can understand people growing older and wanting to find a secure place to build a nest. I can't undertand 16 year old girls pushing prams.

I think settling down and waiting to die is perfectly normal and human. Once you start getting into your 50s and 60s I think that travelling the world would be a lot more difficult. When you reach pensionable age you want to have some money put away, you also want to be able to provide a secure nest egg to pass onto your children and hopefully grandchildren.

Also does have anybody have thoughts of more imaginative ways of passing the time will die?

[DrunkenMaster]

[Justin Hale]

I too found that an unnecessarily difficult OP, Miles, but since in general you're an excellent poster, I see no reason at all to give you a hard time over it.

It was a very sad day for me when, in the recent past, I discovered I'm not altruistic enough to have daughters. Previously, I always assumed I'd have 2 or 3 daughters with a wife or long-term partner, but not merely am I incapable of altruism, I'm also incapable of having a wife or long term partner, also a recent discovery. Most males, it would appear, are content to have a fat 40 year old wife bitching at them when they're in their 40s. I'd sooner be dead and I mean that most sincerely.

On death, I've always known since I was a child that I will one day take my own life. Hopefully that's a long way away, but who knows? That takes away the fear of and despair about death that causes all manner of insanity such as religious hysteria. Here's the rub: in my book, folks who die involuntarily (be it run over by a bus, cancer, old age) are the embodiment of a loser. To choose when one dies and to die voluntarily is the ultimate act of heroism, especially if done by a deliberate overdose of morphine or diacetylmorphine hydrochloride, since these divine manifestations of Lord Lucifer offer a painless, nonconscious, perhaps even pleasurable death.

* I'd appreciate it if those of you, such as twg who despise my posts, refrained from hurtful comments about suicide. Should you wander from what is decent and proper, I'll see to it that you receive a visit from Mighty Lucifer at midnight whereupon He will do glorious bloody murder upon thee.

[Miles Rationis]

[Ya-ta Boy]

I'm not altogether sure that I understood what the OP meant either.

One thing that struck me was that the OP seems to say that he can't sustain a relationship and then condemns the people who can and equates their life-style with 'waiting to die'. There was something about travelling that may or may not be connected to the inability to have longterm relationsips. Making a virtue of necessity?

Anyway. People take different paths in life. One size does not fit all.

[Tiger Beer]

[Miles Rationis]

[Tiger Beer]

[Miles Rationis]

[KirbyMagnus]

[Tiger Beer]

[Miles Rationis]

[anyway]

In my opinion, the one word answer to the OP's question (if I waded through correctly) is 'conditioning'. We are all products of our environment; however some have managed to counteract this influence through luck, evolution, or a large effort of their own. Whatever you want to call it.

It seems the OP has defined 'waiting for death' as the typical western 'future/goal-orientation', which seems to become necessary with offspring. I myself am married with children and feel the need to end the travels for the sake of giving my kids a place to call home, stability, etc. (The only real precedent for 'families on wheels' is set by those in the military. And these folk's offspring are known as 'brats' for a reason.)

To say that 'waiting to off oneself' is substantially different from 'waiting to die naturally' is a creative interpretation of the facts but only marginally so. It still places emphasis on the control which can be exercised by the being. Choosing the time means 'not waiting'.

I guess I wish to comment on this 'isolated bubbles of unawareness of anything' attitude. That phrase epitomizes the problem of limitation. The life of the nomadic expat is often juxtaposed to that of 'the work-home/waiting to die' thing. Of course, monotony can creep into any lifestyle. Monotony reminds me of conditioning.

So, in my case, I find it really boils down to a question of 'what constitutes an end'? Am I conditioned to identify 'beginnings' and 'endings'? Death is a fairly concrete example, but that is physical. What about mental 'death'? There is no joy in waiting. Spontaneity is the principle.

[dimitri31]

[tfunk]

Happy people rarely philosophize about these issues. When people queue for eggs a depressed man will say it's because if he doesn't eat eggs he'll die from lack of nutrition. A happy man will say that he loves it when yellow warm yoke runs across his tongue in a sausage bun.

The depressed man can rationalize his feeling towards life ad nauseum, the happy man won't feel inclined. It's important to realize that your attitude towards things such as life, death etc are usually a symptom of your life situation and are only a perspective you've taken because it accords with your emotions and justifies your sense of being right.