OT: Reflections on the smashed up corner of my car.

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DrClckWrk

Joined
Sep 20, 2003
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373
Somebody damaged my previously undamaged parked car this week while I wasn't around and then drove off. Walked out on tuesday after work and the whole front corner is smashed in like 6 inches and it is maybe a foot or so across. Broke one light and it came close to pushing the wheel well into the tire. Now the truth is, its a '99 cavalier. Its really nothing to show off anyway, but for perspective let me explain my last car.

The driver side door did not open. I would pretend to put things in the passenger side when there were a lot of people around, then look around and jump in and across. The exhaust system was held together by a hanger found in the winter slush of a gas station parking lot when I heard the muffler dragging on the ground and crawled under there to fix it. The warning lights on the dash flashed on and off from time to time, they probably should have been on to say that something wasn't working, but they weren't working either. The speedometer needle laid dead at 0 mph no matter how fast I went, although every now and then it would flick up and fall back down just to give me hope and then shatter it. About half of the exterior was covered in rust. If and when I was able to start it, it made several noises that it shouldn't have.

So the last few years I've thoroughly appreciated driving around in an undamaged '99 cavalier. The point is, that on tuesday, I was basically feeling very sorry for myself due to this minor damage.

Then I thought, in these words,

"I bet there are people in Nepal crying themselves to sleep over this."

Ok partner, I thought, thats the right train of thought.

:rolleyes: :D

Ryan
DrClckWrk
 
I know exactly what you mean. I spent Christmas 2002 on Camp Essayons S. Korea. Not a bad place but not home either. One thing the post did was bring a local orphanage there to have a little party and distribute presents donated by the soldiers. It was really a nice thing, the kids were just loving it. I went to the party to give them the stuffed animal I'd bought and to take a few pictures with my fancy new $500 digital camera. Well, after about an hour that camera ended up getting dropped and broken. Naturally I was furious, and started practically sulking. Then I looked around at the 30+ orphans in the room, thought about the wonderful family I had waiting back home and about the fact that I had $500 to spend on a camera in the first place. Suddenly a couple hundred dollars down the drain didn't seem so bad compared to what those kids had (or rather didn't have). I knew it before but suddenly was really struck by what a lucky person I am. Funny what it takes to put things in perspective sometimes.
 
I love this thread. I adore it.
This is what people should be lucky enough to realize every day.
I came from Plano Texas where the average income is 100,000 $ a year.
Talk about screwed up people.
You can't get a date in that town without a freaking cadillac.
I remember people thinking I was a "loser" because I was still living with my parents and didnt have a car or my own apartment at 25.
Dear God.
I had everything a person could want.
But that wasnt enough. No, a "normal" person has a 50k$ a year job, his own house, a new car, a flat screen TV.
Without all that stuff, you're "fringe."

Please God.

You know what ? WE are not alone in our rejection of that mentality.
One of the most influential things in my whole life was watching a movie based on a book by Somerset Maugham, called "The Razor's Edge."

I bet Uncle bill knows this book, because the man in the book gave up a NYC stockbroker life (you know, martinis and polo) to go live in France and pack fish, lived in Ireland to dig coal, all so he could go to India and wash dishes in a monastery.

(He was a medic in WW1 and saw life and death and depravity and sacrifice for REAL and he knew he could never go back to his old life.)

It is an excellent movie. If you ever liked me at all, go rent "The Razor's Edge" with Bill Murray. You won't regret it.
 
I remember seeing The Razor's Edge in the theaters. It was a short run, less than 10 days before the studios pulled it.

It has also affected me more profoundly than any other film. Bitter, sweet and lasting.

I feel it was the role Bill Murray was born to play. Don't believe anyone could have filled the character of Larry Darrell as well. The death of Sophie MacDonald still hurts me to think about :(
 
DannyinJapan said:
...I remember people thinking I was a "loser" because I was still living with my parents and didnt have a car or my own apartment at 25... a "normal" person has a 50k$ a year job, his own house, a new car, a flat screen TV.Without all that stuff, you're "fringe."...
Click to expand...
Danny,
You are who you think you are. If your image of yourself is formed by the opinions of others then you truly will be a "loser".
 
Is the Razor's Edge a remake of the old classic, itself based on a book by Somerset Maughm (really bad spelling!) ??


munk
 
Ben,
I think you've tried to tell me that which I was already saying in my post. Maybe you didn't get that, but it was my intention to say what you just said and more.

Yes Munk, this is the movie based on the old Somerset Maugham book. If there was n earlier movie version made, I would love to see it.
 
"If there was n earlier movie version made, I would love to see it"

The first screen version of The Razor's Edge seems to have been done in 1946 .
Time to start searching the better video stores around here...
 
Munk you have to understand that the cantina does in fact have a growing population of generation X'ers and gen Y'ers (aptly dubbed due to our "why? what's the point?" attitude. Real friggin' cute) that do think life began in the 90's:) no Internet, no cell phones, no starbuck's on every corner...how did you live? (tongue placed firmly in cheek;))

Jake
Class o' '99;)
 
What Steely Gunz said. I know life wasn't invented in the 90's theoretically, but realistically it sure seems like it to me since I don't remember anything before about 1987 or so. RR, class of 2001 :eek:.
 
Mowgli was my brother.

Look folks, I waited at least 30 years to feign shocked surprise at cultural and historic events young people do not understand today. My parents ruthlessly did this to me, and somebody's gonna pay.



munk

btw; the "razor's edge" may have an older meaning I do not know- how's that for naive? (it may come from Upanishads or some such) But in the last 60 years or so, Eastern Religious writings and writers took up the expression fondly. Herman Hesse comes to mind. What I never liked about the expression is the inference enlightenment is like walking a thin line, and that a fall on either side leads you to being lost, or worse; doomed.

If enlightenment is that hard, I don't want it. The best things in Life are gifts, and you only have to be able to recieve.
 
Good stuff.
I want to get ahold of that book.

Class of '98. I don't know what generation that makes me. :confused: I'll be generation question mark.
 
DrClckWrk,
I believe you, like myself, are really Gen X'ers, but we early 20-somethings have resently been dubbed by the media generation Y because of our "attitude". Really, we're just the younger half of the of the younger baby boomers kids. I like to think of us as the Brat Pack 2.0:)
 
I like older, classic stuff. I was a huge fan of Sinatra and when he died, I had friends call ME.

I just don't research every single movie and book to find out if there was a previous version made 60 years ago.
 
I don't either, I've just watched old movies over time. I watch many today on the classic movie channels.


I don't like Sinatra.

But I do like the lou Reed version of his one of his songs- whatever it's called- "Set em up , Joe."

Reed sounds like a selfish prick and that does Sinatra justice. Or to put it another way, Sinatra comes from the 'Baby done left me, I'm getting sh--faced and feeling sorry for myself." School. Which is fine, We all know that school well. (at least I do) When Reed sings the song, you don't feel sorry for him at all- he sounds so 'non deep', like at any moment a fat line might show up, that you just want to laugh.
munk
 
Putting things in perspective by considering the woes of the less fortunate still doesn't make for a happy ending in my book, but it certainly makes the ending happier. I go through this on a daily basis.

My current duty station has me instructing and certifying sailors from various commands on various firearms. Twice a week, the submariners come out. (I'm a former submariner, in case anyone thinks I'm biased. :) ) These students don't normally handle firearms and only shoot them once per year for qualification. Their training is done at another location, meaning that if they're trained wrong, we have to deal with it. Classes range from good (rare) to alarming (the usual) to downright frightening. (Occasional.) This morning, the class was terrifying. I won't go into specifics but needless to say there were several moments where I was honestly fearful for my life.

Afterwards, while trying to calm down (this job has actually given me a nervous twitch in my left hand over the last year, or maybe it's just the lead dust), I recalled that I have friends who are currently in Iraq, some of whom I've known since high school. One of these high school friends has already been wounded twice and is still there, going on ten months now. Yes, my students can be knuckleheads, but they aren't actually trying to kill me. My friend in Iraq has a different problem entirely. I'd rather do my job than his.

Sorry about your car, BTW. I purchased an '04 Jetta back in March, the first car I've ever owned that wasn't ten years old or older. By the second day, I'd suffered a destroyed tire. By the end of the first weekend, local children had dinged it up in several places and it had taken a good door strike on its very first visit to the mall. Within a month, it had gravel damage to the front end. I managed to wreck the oilpan by month #5. Nice cars are damage magnets. I believe my next vehicle will be used. :)
 
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