The Definition of Peace

Svashtar

Svashtar

Joined
Dec 28, 2003
Messages
4,793
Something kind of weird just struck me and I'd thought I would share it. I was sitting tonight in the home office where I spend most of my time, and from where I was sitting looking straight ahead, I turned my chair exactly 90 degrees. I wasn't really focusing, just thinking about something I needed to do.

From the start of that turn to the end, here is what I read on various objects my eyes ran across:

DEC, iomega, Sony, Belkin, Acer, Sony, Panasonic, Microsoft, Fellowes, Lexmark, Isobar, DataShield, 2Wire, Belkin, Diamond, iomega, Yamaha, AT&T, Motorola, Minolta, NEC, Fisher, JVC, OptiQuest, Logitech, Microsoft, NEC, APC, Plantronics, GE, BELL Equipment and Sharp.

No way I'm going to go the other 270 degrees. :rolleyes: (Actually, this is the crammed computer corner of the room. The rest of it is just walls and books for the most part; pretty safe!)

I see these logos constantly in my space, as I'm sure you all do. So much so in fact that they stay in the background, hardly registering.

But it occurred to me tonight that the definition of peace for me is being somewhere where I don't see any of this junk. Some trees, some grass, a nice uncluttered view, time to think. The most technologically advanced thing in my hands a nicely sharpened hatchet, or working kukri, or well-honed knife.

I believe I was born about 50 years too late. ;)

I've never fathomed people who go on vacation and take electronic stuff with them. Guess they can't abide their own company and have to be in constant contact. I just get tired of the technology seeming to dominate our lives as opposed to making it more peaceful.

Maybe that's why we love this stuff, knives I mean. Takes us back to a past where the big deal each morning was what to hunt that day to have for dinner that night. I think those people were a lot more _real_ in many ways, and perhaps quite a bit happier.

Just a thought...

Norm
 
I think the thing that gives me the greatest sense of peace is when I lay down in bed with the cat on my chest and my hand draped over him while he sleeps. Also on the list of things that bring me peace are watching a turkey vulture soar, listening to the wind in the trees, tracking the movement of Orion in the winter sky, gazing upon the full moon, fondling a bone handled single blade trapper. I live and work in the city so I have to take what glimpes of nature I get. It's hard to live in rat race central and keep my Zen about me. But I try.

Frank
 
SilverFoxKnows said:
I think the thing that gives me the greatest sense of peace is when I lay down in bed with the cat on my chest and my hand draped over him while he sleeps.
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Sometimes when I'm laying on the floor to straighten my back, my dog will come over to me and lay down alongside. Most times, however, she'll run over and sit down, leaning against the top of my head. Not complaining, but she is flatulent.

I do remember one night I came home from work at 1 AM (I started at midnight but found out I wasn't supposed to be there when I arrived), and it was absolutely silent. No wind, no traffic on the highway in the distance, no departures from the local airport, just silence and snow in the darkness. It was shocking. I think it was most shocking because that kind of quiet is so rare in my life. Like Svashtar says, you really don't realize it until you think about it. Here at work, I can hear the throaty whir of the building air handler, the delicate spinning of the fans inside the computers, the dull hum of the fluorescent lights, the vacuous hush of the radio's speakers, and even the barely perceptible squeal of the CRT monitors, but I don't really notice until I pay attention to them or, like that night, they're gone.
 
Norm, I think you're on to something. Sarge knew it. Kismet knows it. Hopefully I'll simplify my life some day.
Steve
 
Looked outside the window yesterday afternoon (big backyard). Saw 30-40 robins scurrying around, eating the breadcrumbs that I'd scattered. Big, foolish grin on my face. Remembered Dick Singer (Sogguy). I'm with you, Norm.
 
I put an old stereo I got at a garage sale in my shop. It cost nearly nothing and was probably worth just that. The tape player doesn't work, and the CD player doesn't work either. I knew that, and bought it for the radio, and the 'don't care if the dust kills it' factor.

Now this annoys me. I turn up a good song because I'm working the grinder and want to hear it. Then the commercial comes on. Its loud and annoying, and I have to stop working to go turn it down. Then up when a good song comes on again, then down. Its more work having music to work to than not, so the thing stays off.
 
Peace for me, is my daily commute actually. I have to be a work pretty much every day. It's just that kind of job. However, that doesn't mean that I have to dread the day. I live exactly 5.1 from work, but i take a road that takes me 11.7 miles out of my way.

It removes me from the heavy traffic flow of the uptight people in their suits rushing to get to a place they hate to go. It's a series of bumpy old farm roads that no one travels unless they have to. In the summer, it gives me my only chance to ride my motorcycle. At 7am the breeze is always at least a little cool, even in August. I love the feel of the wind on my face and the thick humid air clinging to my arms as i weave around potholes and bumps and watch the horses come out to feed or the farmers working their crops.

If it looks like rain, I take the jeep. It doesn't have a top on it in the summer, so I'll still get wet. However, stopping 4 wet tires is a lot safer than trying to stop 2. Days like those, the dog gets to ride along with me to work. He sits in his bed and watches the world go by as the massive tires and too-stiff springs rattle our teeth. The wind pin his ears back a bit as he watches the birds arch across the sky, and for once he feels like he just might be going fast enough to catch them:)

It's the little things in life that we have to enjoy. I would love to spend my springs and summers going on camping trips and hikes and traveling with the Mrs. However, with my line of work, that just isn't in the cards...but at least I can enjoy getting there.
 
Peace grows and changes for me with my environment, most often includes the laughter of loved ones, in the winter after that new,fluffy,weightless snow acts as sound absorber, sitting around a small fire watching my girls sip hot chocolate and giggling at the cat leaping through too deep snow.....in summer maybe on a quiet beach on the lake in the middle of the week, again my girls making sand castles, the castle getting more and more complex as they get older, my Holly actually laying on a beach blanket reading a book that's making her smile and not having to rush off to one important job or another, the wind,sun a few clouds just when you need em,the surf......when we pick up one of my little cousins or friends serving somewhere and that feeling of relief at seeing them ok, when we have no control of our tears.
You are right on gentlemen, it is usually far away from the rat race.
mark:)
 
Spot on, Norm.

That's why I prefer watching a fire in a fireplace to any plasma TV.


Mike
 
Peace comes in the evening. Once supper is on the table and the big TV is on there are no more commitments for the day, now I relax for the time is mine. Perhaps that why winter is my favorite season for that is when evenings are longest

I also find peace when I am at camp. There is no phone or computer there, just wood stove and generator for the basic creature comforts TV microwave, battery chargers for the marine batteries. Evenings at camp are even longer, and mornings are laid back with the smell of bacon and eggs. Long lesurely days on the lake ice fishing in winter, canoing in summer.

When peace settles in, I foget about my problems and even the pain lessens and sometimes goes away. My mind is quiet and my body at ease.
 
Bufford said:
Peace comes in the evening. Once supper is on the table and the big TV is on there are no more commitments for the day, now I relax for the time is mine. Perhaps that why winter is my favorite season for that is when evenings are longest

I also find peace when I am at camp. There is no phone or computer there, just wood stove and generator for the basic creature comforts TV microwave, battery chargers for the marine batteries. Evenings at camp are even longer, and mornings are laid back with the smell of bacon and eggs. Long lesurely days on the lake ice fishing in winter, canoing in summer.

When peace settles in, I foget about my problems and even the pain lessens and sometimes goes away. My mind is quiet and my body at ease.
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That camp sounds great Bufford. I need to find a place like that, soon. I haven't had much work lately, other than the work of finding work, but when I was there was always something to do, some emergency, some late night or weekend to take you away from your family. Add 15 or 20 hours to the work week, plus the commute, and then ask for more.

If you let them, which is a natural inclination for most people because you want to be well thought of and respected, the users will suck up your life.

It's hard but you have to learn to push back and get your own time first. Easier said than done though...!

Norm
 
My favorite moments of peace are lying under the sun with a light breeze blowing. Just relaxing and absorbing the heat. I have found that I have to live in an area where nature is readily accessible. If I can't go for a walk in the woods outside my door I'm rather unhappy. Of course like many I'd prefer to have a cabin in the woods and spend my days chopping wood, hunting, fishing and living life instead of working.
 
from my understanding of established agrarian societies they had considerably more time to work and spend time with their family members and people in their communities whether it be in the fields or in service of their fellow man. They provided enough for themselves of what was necessity.The sad thing to me is that it seems we on a large scale as well as individually to some degree have sold our birthrighs for a mess of porrage. The world says we need the plasma and the escalade and we are deeply ensconced in a consumer arms race. this is the winter of our discontent. I wish I was in Boise right now at the large window looking into the yard where the handmade bird and squirrel feeders were constantly being visited by those critters recognized by name and Max the cat was stretching across the desk.

Norm, thanks to you and Steve and Aardvark for inviting me here so long ago. You gentlemen are definately from a better place and time.

I am also thankful for the opportunity to listen to your wisdom. From so many things that are said I could swear Dickie was here.
 
the greatest sense of peace i have experienced was at the cottage, sitting in front of the lake at dusk.
 
Early morning is a very peaceful time for me when I set down for daily prayer, meditation and Yoga. Agian welcome back, Norm
 
Well...

maybe it falls to us to try and see if 50 years from now, folks can say, "I'm sure glad I wasn't born 50 years ago!"

I'm down for that struggle.

I think we are headed for a simpler life anyway, whether we want it or not. I want to try and help my kids make that transition, but I lack a lot of the skills. I'm working on it though.

Tom
 
Yangdu said:
Early morning is a very peaceful time for me when I set down for daily prayer, meditation and Yoga. Again welcome back, Norm
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Thank you again Yangdu! I understand and practice daily prayer, but don't really meditate and have not done yoga. My current exercise is about 40 minutes on a bike and 20 minutes on weights. Not contemplative exercise in any sense of the word.

A friend of mine from central India (Bangalore) who I worked with before is 35 years old and has an almost perfect physique. He's very strong and toned. He says that all he does is daily yoga exercises. Both he and his wife take advanced classes. Obviously he's a very advanced practitioner, and far more toned and limber than I have ever been.

Even when I was much younger and thinner I wasn't very flexible (well, _once_ but I had had quite a bit to drink, and she was very special. I won't elaborate. :eek: Sorry. :o ;))

Does anyone else here practice yoga? Just curious. I was amazed at how strong my friend is and I've never seen him lift a single weight.

Norm
 
If you lived surrounded by trees and grass your definition of peace might include an office with a computer screen and various logos on the walls.

Peace is a blessing when it is found. Lucky for us, it can be found nearly anywhere.

When I opened your post I first thought of the impact of the logos around you. I thought that interesting, how we take advertisement for granted, even wearing manufacturing logos on our clothing or printed in large letters on our vehicles. If our environment shapes us, what comes of seeing "Microsoft" and other icons in our private space? People hang pictures of cowboys and famous trout streams on their walls to direct this event, to consciously shape the experience.
Anyway, I didn't think many people would figure out a goofy game like you had in taking a visual inventory of your office space, but I guess if you're there long enough, all sorts of funny games get invented. I got a kick out of that.


munk
 
My work space and cubicle is pretty peaceful.

My house is pretty peaceful except for all the wild animal cries, dogs barking, guineas squacking and the about 6 roosters crowing all day but that in a way is peaceful:thumbup:

The woods is really peaceful to me too.

The main unpeaceful time for me is cleaning house exp vacuuming because our rooms are small and cluttered.:D You knock the guns and khukuris over;):thumbup:
 
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