It's the last chance to do a WEEKEND ENGAGEMENT topic before I head off to Tassie, and I'm not likely to do one on the road (sorry @galenkp) so I thought I'd do all three! Are you read for my waffle? Here goes!
250 minutes
'Hi Mum, is Dad there?'
'Sure, let me just get him for you'.
That's pretty much how the conversation goes every time I call my parents. Poor Mum. I reallly am Daddy's girl. But if I'm going to die, it's him I'm calling. When he told me he had cancer I kinda went a little gooey. He hugged me then pushed me away, as he does (he's not a huggy man) and said 'River, you do yoga, you know what this is about'. Yep. Impermanence and all that. There'd be many conversations later - so many good ones that now he's got cancer again, we don't have to have them. You know, the 'was I a good parent/yes you were the best' kinda thing, and 'I wish I had have gone to Nepal/But Dad, you've had an awesome life' kinda thing.
Anyway, I'm calling Dad as he always has such a gentle, circumspect and philosophical way of looking at life and death. We get each other. He's not going to go to pieces on me.
'Hey Dad, I got my leg bitten off by a shark and I'm bleeding out'.
'Well, River, you do yoga, you know what it's all about. Just breath'.
Yes Dad.
Then I'm going to call my son and tell him how much I love him, and how proud I am of him, and probably cry and make a joke at the same time. I do love making him laugh. He's not very good at emotional things so it might go like this:
'Hey honey, I've just been disembowelled by a zombie'
'Oh, that's no good Mum' he'll say. Long awkward silence.
Of course, Jamie'll be with me, as he always is.
'Babe, I think I'm going to die very soon'.
'I wish I could die for you', he'll say. 'I love you more than all the ones.'. He's talking about all the woman he's been with. It's a running joke. He'll hold me in his arms and I'll melt. I'll smell his armpits for the last time and here him say 'I love you, I love you, I love you, I love you' and die happy.
Found $250
It's mine! All mine! I'm buying dinner at Ipsos in Lorne tonight! I love a good Greek meal. I'll probably invite my folks, as they haven't been out in ages. Or my sister and her husband. We'll drink wine and eat fried saganaki.
If I lost $250 I wouldn't even bother going to the authorities. I'd just swear a little but be happy for the person who found it.
However, chances are I'd probably go onto the Facebook community page of the town I found it in and say 'hey, found something valuable in town today - if you can message me with what it was, it's yours'. Only because that would be super cool if someone did that to me with my lost cash.
What goes around comes around.
What will life be like in 250 years?
I believe things can only get worse. History gives us a pretty good clue to to the future. The more we seem to advance, the further backward we slide. Technology made our lives better to a point - and you can't argue aspects of modern medicine like cancer treatment aren't awesome - but it's also ruining it. Social media has made us cling harder to our identities and polarise against the 'other' in echo chambers of anger and fear and it's made us navel gaze to the point we're scrolling more through the things we want to buy to become something we think will make us happy than actually doing the things that have the real potential to make us happy.
I'm in a little echo chamber of my own where I surround myself with people who do good things, in my view, like take care of the earth and plant vegetables and recycle. You could almost argue that the seed of humanity is cracking under pressure so that we can grow into something better, but outside my echo chamber I know the reality is different. Human beings are driven far more by greed and vanity than they are by compassion and altruism.
In 250 years, we're going to be living in the same dystopia we've always lived in. It'll just look a little different. We won't see night skies anymore, signalling the end of our ability to gaze and wonder at what is beyond our own belly button. I see a no man's land, the remnants of a war zone, skeloton trees and us living off cockroaches.
But maybe there will be pockets of paradise too, where there are no people at all, and the wildlife has come back, like it did during the height of the pandemic when the world entirely shut down. I love that idea. Humanity all but wiped out and the plants and animals coming back to regain a paradise. The earth healing itself. That's the best kind of utopia.
Dark? I suppose so. But tell me what signs there are that suggest otherwise? I need some hopium.
With Love,
Are you on HIVE yet? Earn for writing! Referral link for FREE account here
Okay, I think I'm in love with your father now. Ha! What a Dad thing to say! You two really do have a special kind of relationship now don't you?
Amidst all the goodbyes, grand theft (which is really just finder's keepers), smelling armpits, and opinions on Earth's future; I feel as though you have given an emotional, humorous, simple, and yet still thought provoking responses to all 3 WK engagement topics.
Frankly, your responses were my favorite from this week's. I truly did enjoy reading this.
@zeraton that's such a lovely comment, you made my morning. Yeah, we do have a good bond that's for sure. He's a good man. Thanks for picking out the special details of my post ❤️🙏
No river, it was my pleasure. And Aw, i'm glad I made your morning.
So true, I always believe in that. And I agree some day the plants and animals will regain this place - in fact it has been predicted by someone in 16th century - few of his words are already true, the 99 cyclone, Covid. He wrote about Covid like this - there will be a time when human will wear a mask and will be locked at home but animals will roam free. In my place bullocks were given masks earlier, if they do not obey the master. Bullock carts have been disappearing slowly but his words are becoming true. I recently visited his shrine - will post about it soon.
Oh gosh do let me know when you post that, it sounds fascinating! What was his name?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Achyutananda
This post has been manually curated by @steemflow from Indiaunited community. Join us on our Discord Server.
Do you know that you can earn a passive income by delegating to @indiaunited. We share 100 % of the curation rewards with the delegators.
Here are some handy links for delegations: 100HP, 250HP, 500HP, 1000HP.
Read our latest announcement post to get more information.
Please contribute to the community by upvoting this comment and posts made by @indiaunited.
Your content has been voted as a part of Encouragement program. Keep up the good work!
Use Ecency daily to boost your growth on platform!
Support Ecency
Vote for new Proposal
Delegate HP and earn more
A nice mashup and yeah, I'd keep the $250 also.
I liked the 250 years response a lot because I tend to agree.
I wish I could believe we would end up better. But look at everything that's happened since WW1. Another two hundred odd years and we are bound to be truly fucked. Or maybe that's what everyone living through crisis feels. maybe we just had it good for a couple of decades and now we are going back to plague and war and that again.
The decline has been steady and lately, 25 years, the speed at which it moves has accelerated. There's no doubt.
I like your communication with your parent and of course, your son. Also. keeping the money to yourself is good because this is what I will do too, only that I will share part of it with the needy who needs help.
That's very kind of you. I guess I was thinking I have already given money to needy (we had terrible floods and many people were made homeless) so the imaginary money was a happy bonus!
Your $250 is a hit of freebie from mother nature 😊😊
Then your son would probably cry endlessly for the breaking sad news of your last moments with him.
Good and well structured write up it is. Kudos!
Oh I'm sure he would cry for sure, I'm a pretty awesome mum! 😂
Yep I would do the same!
Agreed and I am not sure if there will anything left to slide in 250 years.
Have a great trip😁
I know it feels so negative doesn't it? I feel I should think better things about humanity. I'm usually a more hopeful person!
So am I, but there are limits!
You're right about the 250 years. I couldn't write on it because I never thought of how it would become probably because I wouldn't be alive by that time. But you gave a great insight on how it might be with nice points. I hope it gets better than worse.
I do too. But thousands of years of human history seems evidence we are devolving!
Hey River; sorry to hear about your dad. That cancer conversation is never easy; for me, it was really not 'real' - my Dad had lung cancer four times, beating it three times for a full recovery, before the next - I suppose I became a bit neutral: medicine will always work.
And then, it didn't, but mastercised into brain cancer and a 'You have 2 weeks to live'. That was at the start of February. Went up that weekend, said goodbye. Didn't quite work out quite the way I wanted, it was dancing around the subject and not quite knowing what to say. A week later, got the chance to say it again - and it was exactly what I needed to be able to move into acceptance.
I wonder, if you ring your dad, then your son, whether it'd be worth ringing your dad back for the do-over. Honestly, was one of the most important second chances I've ever had, and may ever get.
Tim
I'm so sorry that you had that experience and didn't know what to say. We are all good - we did all of that when we though he was going to die in 2021. Talked our hearts out, cried - it was really beautiful and none of us felt there was anything unresolved or unsaid. We are all very lucky. A lot of good humour and love. Became closer as a family. Dad had all this worry and guilt about being a good Dad and honestly I could tell him he was the best Dad ever and how much I loved him and what a good, good man he was. A lot of peoople he didn't realise were good friends called and visited and let him knwo how important he was too, which suprised him. Then he recovered! So even if he all of a sudden goes tonight, we're all good - we are actually super cool! It's funny, NONE of us (mum, dad, my sister etc) feel the need to go over it again.
Again, my condolances and sadness and empathy to you . xxx Glad you have found acceptance.
Before now I thought about reporting to the authorities that I picked a whooping $250 as a good deed. Still a good deed though.
But what would have happened if I were the one that lost such amount? Would the person who found it return it or use it?
Yes it's much better to do the right thing ❤️💯 a kind of karma!