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moz4prez Donating Member (591 posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Jan-11-04 12:54 AM
Original message
CAR ACCIDENT
This is my first self-indulgent post. Bear with me.

As all of you probably know, life isn't separated into chapters. It's a pretty monotonous continuum, along which you run into a few surprises. Then your medical bills shoot through the roof during the final six months. My car was totaled less than a week ago and I wrote very briefly about it in a thread that has been archived. Why oh why is my little car dead, why couldn't that Toyota have hit me instead? It had assumed much of a personality, as an old car often can. But my car, in which I was escorted from the hospital shortly after my BIRTH eighteen years ago, was not allowed so much as a dignified retirement after its years of faithful service; it was sent off to the scrapyard. But I am vindicated. A brush with death does not give you a new perspective of life, just a stark awareness of how terribly precarious it is.

What's funny is that before the accident, I had felt that I had lost the will to live, spurned by the world, and other such bullshit. I found it very distressing that people could live the way they did, fully aware that death awaited them around every corner. We live like animals, and no, that isn't admirable. I'm no different, of course! I serve no greater good. But I wouldn't know where to begin. Actually I've narrowed my choices down a bit. I'd like to presume that many of us have no idea where to begin in defining this "greater good" in the first place, especially since the majority of us honestly believe there is no good greater than the interests of the individual. (Particularly ourselves!) It's only natural. But nature is wickedness, that's how God intended it. How can God's design be flawed. We're selfish little beasts, all we want is to screw and to shit regularly and to suffer. We can't perceive anything bigger than ourselves, though at times we try. But trying I'm afraid is just not enough. Trying doesn't cut it. We could INVENT something greater than the sum of our experiences, we could spend our stupid lives in hopeless devotion to the state, or maybe LOVE is the greatest good. Love is too exclusive to be good. And sex is immoral whether for pleasure or procreation. I'm convinced GOD is the greatest good if anything is to be good at all. Maybe the greatest good is a cunt on a stick. Truthfully I have no idea. Maybe superlatives are the mostest greatest bestest good thing in the whole world.

So anyhow, after this terrible car accident all of which I can be certain is that I am AFRAID TO DIE

So, I'm asking, for the hell of it: what is the greatest good?
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WillParkinson Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Jan-11-04 01:27 AM
Response to Original message
1. I thought of this today...
Live today as if there is no tomorrow.

Live tomorrow as if there was no yesterday.

In other words...

Live now. You don't know what tomorrow will bring and you can't change what happened yesterday.
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Rabrrrrrr Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Jan-11-04 01:44 AM
Response to Original message
2. The greatest good? To defeat your enemies, to see them driven before you,
and to hear the lamentations of their women.

Seriously, though - I always go with that quote when someone asks what is best in life, or what is the aim of life - anyway - what is the greatest good? Show mercy and kindness, love your neighbor as yourself, and enjoy this day for it is a gift, and might be your last.
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Skittles Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Jan-11-04 01:48 AM
Response to Original message
3. a WHAT on a stick ?
WTF is that supposed to mean ?
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moz4prez Donating Member (591 posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Jan-11-04 01:57 AM
Response to Reply #3
5. a cunt on a stick is someone to screw
Edited on Sun Jan-11-04 02:07 AM by moz4prez
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Skittles Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Jan-11-04 12:22 PM
Response to Reply #5
8. you need to come up with a better expression
that is disgusting
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moz4prez Donating Member (591 posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Jan-11-04 12:30 PM
Response to Reply #8
10. what is need?
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Mattforclark Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Jan-11-04 01:56 AM
Response to Original message
4. I am glad you are OK.
As a serious answer to your question, if you want it:

What is the greatest good?

First we must determine the nature of the question. It is not a question like "what is the cat." If you asked that question, I could point to the cat and say, "that is the cat."

In this case, I cannot point to anything to identify as "the greatest good" and unlike with cats there is likely to be disagreement among different people. Words get their meaning through their use within the language, so in a case where there is significant disagreement among people as to what something is, there is no commonly more or less understood meaning of what the greatest good is.

So what is it then?

It is a string of words, which may have some sort of meaning to different people. People will argue about it because there is no common understanding about what it is.

That probably doesn't address what you wanted, but maybe it is the type of answer you are looking for. Again, glad you are OK and sorry about your car.
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LeighAnn Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Jan-11-04 02:16 AM
Response to Original message
6. "God is Great, God is Good"
Sorry about your car.

:^(

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dweller Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Jan-11-04 02:28 AM
Response to Original message
7. Venimos prestados
Our lives are only lent to us.

do with it what you can.
dp
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HEyHEY Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Jan-11-04 12:26 PM
Response to Original message
9. Whatever it is you're smoking - you could have shared.
Seriously though, no will to live at 18? Dude, you gotta get out more.

I think the best way to serve the greater good is: If you aren't going to help people, don't hurt them.
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beawr Donating Member (358 posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Jan-11-04 12:48 PM
Response to Original message
11. Ya' want some advice
The greatest good has been taught, one way or another, by many religions. The Christian way ('cuz that's what I know) is:

Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.

But this sentiment shows up in lotsa teachings. Sorry about the car, Toyotas DO last don't they?
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welshTerrier2 Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Jan-11-04 01:15 PM
Response to Original message
12. life is like a river ...
sorry, couldn't resist ...

so let's go with that ... life is like a river ... did you fall in or did you choose to go for a swim ... it's your call ... are you upstream or downstream or just plain old in the river ... it's your call ...

there is no greatest good ... there is no greatest bad ... they are all part of the same stream ...

you want answers to the big questions? life is for learning, my friend ... your talk of depression and suicide concerns me ... stick around for awhile and watch the show ... this is the only movie house in town ... you'll have plenty of time for resting after the show's over ...

if you're really struggling with hopelessness and the pointlessness of it all, get yourself some help ... the shrinks can give you drugs that will help you cope more easily if you really value easier coping ... some value suffering and argue it exposes raw nerves for better sensitivity to learning ... maybe they're right ... who knows ...

there are no absolutes ... i know this to be absolutely true !!! what's the greatest good? if i have to answer that, i'd say it's doing the best you can with the cards you're dealt ...

from Joni Mitchell's "Woodstock":

And maybe it's the time of year
Yes, and maybe it's the time of man
And I don't know who I am
But life is for learning
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