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smith
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On fire! |
Registered: January 1970
Messages: 1095
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because this tiny little patch of cyberspace at this very time IS our place and we wonder at the meaning of that. How we got here, what we found that makes us stay. Don't say you want to leave; say why you need to stay.
If I sat down in front of any of you right now across a table in a quiet cafe, what would we say? How would we feel? Would you see "smith" or a kid with glasses he has to keep pushing up on his nose? Would you talk to me like you do here or feel silly trying to talk to a kid (we are all supposed to be dumb, you know)? Would I even be able to look you in the eyes, knowing you are older, wiser? We can talk here because there are no walls, no closed doors. The key to all this is caring and caring is what we all do best.
I NEED to help. I think those of us who have been hurt find a certain joy in listening, in caring. If we can make this world a better place for just one person, then the hurt will slowly fade away.
Tim,Kevvy,Warren,and anyone else who feels alone: You aren't. If one person knows your name, your thoughts and your dreams, you are never alone. Believe me, for the few of us who talk on here all the time, there are others, who never post, who read our words and find peace from them. I know...I was one of them. We just welcomed Jeff and now we are having an angst-filled morning.
No, this isn't our real world, but it can be our sane world. The place where we can be ourselves and kick back for awhile until the pieces fall back into place. I've found that if you look in the right place long enough...sometimes you find exactly what you need. Please stay here and keep looking:)
Oh, and Ash..........for you 
Yesterday is gone -
Shy smiles and gentle laughter
Wait for tomorrow!
Love, hugs and God bless~
smith
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marc
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Needs to get a life! |
Registered: March 2003
Messages: 4729
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We cried a bit, the emotional shock of meeting and just plain damn happy that we, in this hugely complicated world had the opportunity to meet and break bread together.
We spent 5 days talking, mostly in a busy corner of a busy coffee shop on St. Cathrine Blvd in Montreal.
On an exotically beautiful saturday morning we took a trip to Vermont.
On Sunday, these few strangers stood in the street, bawling like small children because it was time to go home and we weren't yet ready.
We parted not as strangers in the night... but as family heading off to all corners of the world, knowing we have a place in it.
Marc
Life is great for me... Most of the time... But then I meet people online... Very few are real friends... Many say they are but know nothing of what it means... Some say they are, but are so shallow...
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I wish I'd been there
Friendship is the inexpressible comfort of feeling safe with a person, having neither to weigh thoughts or measure words
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marc
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Needs to get a life! |
Registered: March 2003
Messages: 4729
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On or about the first week in august we meet in Montreal...
Life is great for me... Most of the time... But then I meet people online... Very few are real friends... Many say they are but know nothing of what it means... Some say they are, but are so shallow...
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Yes, I’m another who feels out of place and I ask my self why? I feel I have nothing to contribute - adding my good wishes to what others have said so much better than I could, doesn’t seem enough. You and many others, helped me when I needed it, now I need to put something back. I know my name is known to many and a little about my self but who wants to share their thought and dreams with some one old enough to be their grandfather. Old I may be but smith you are a lot wiser than I. Since reading smith’s tale I find that it is possible to have conversations on the net. Any one for cricket? Provided they’ll teach me how!
Friendship is the inexpressible comfort of feeling safe with a person, having neither to weigh thoughts or measure words
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marc
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Needs to get a life! |
Registered: March 2003
Messages: 4729
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It isn't so much a matter of age, but more a matter of possessing a willingness to be a friend.
Yes there are many young people here, and they are rather articulate in their ideas and speach but, in the way of life's experiences there can be no doubt we geezers have the edge.
It is our experience at life, our affirment in the knowledge that there is indeed hope for the young peoson who feels tourmoil because he feels he will never find himself.
Mike, you have more to contribute than you might think.
Life is great for me... Most of the time... But then I meet people online... Very few are real friends... Many say they are but know nothing of what it means... Some say they are, but are so shallow...
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timmy
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Has no life at all |
Location: UK, in Devon
Registered: February 2003
Messages: 13796
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OK, teach all the non cricketing nations the laws (note we do not have RULES) of cricket.
Especially 5 day test cricket!
Author of Queer Me! Halfway Between Flying and Crying - the true story of life for a gay boy in the Swinging Sixties in a British all male Public School
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smith
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On fire! |
Registered: January 1970
Messages: 1095
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I would love to share your thoughts and dreams. I don't have a grandfather anymore. We were walking in the snowy woods Christmas before last when he just fell over. He had been telling me about how to carve; which wood to use. He never finished. I miss him so much.
I'm not wiser; I just still see though a child's eyes. timmy calls it innocence, which, in truth, it cannot be but I hope that never changes. I hear people say : We don't ever grow up; we just grow old. I hope that isn't true.
Thank you for telling me a reason to keep writing......I had just about given up thinking it made any difference at all. If you talk, I'll listen, Mike
{{hugs}}
smith
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I was reminded the other day (thanks to smith!) of the song "Teach Your Children" by Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young (how much of a "geezer" does that make me?!). As I've always interpreted the song, it's just as much an encouragement for children to teach their parents as it is for parents to teach their children (and admonishing the parents to listen to what their children are trying to "teach" them).
We of the "older" generation may have an edge as far as age and experience are concerned; but I think that is more than offset by the much greater awareness the younger generation seems to have about the ways of the world. The older generation needs to break out of the ivory towers they have a tendency to encase themselves in, which cause them to think they and they alone have the only true answer to every question (like the radical religious do!), and which cause them squirm in discomfort when confronted by some young whipper-snapper with glasses he has to constantly push back on his nose who is clearly so much the older person’s intellectual master. The older generation simply has no right to expect the younger generation to learn anything from them if the older generation can't allow itself to learn from the younger generation. Otherwise, the younger generation will (again) just grow up and repeat all the same mistakes, allowing the vicious cycle to perpetuate.
I know that whenever I read a posting from a young person here, I always come away with a new and different perspective on things. It therefore follows that the more young people participate here, the more I am (and we are) able to learn from them (not to mention from each other). Welcome, Jeff ! (And I’m sorry I didn’t reply directly to your thread, but I’ve been “out of touch” for the past couple of days!) It’s so terrific you (finally!) took the advice of that kid with the glasses by “breaking the ice” and posting here. Please do continue to post anytime YOU feel you have something to say. And as for the rest of you lurkers, especially those in smith’s and Jeff’s peer group, I hope you follow their example.
How many of you in my generation who grew up in the New York area remember a TV program for children on Sunday morning called “Wonderama” on which the host often led the kids in the studio audience in a song called “Kids are People, Too”. That’s a fact we need to keep firmly in mind.
We do not remember days...we remember moments.
Cesare Pavese
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No Message Body
Friendship is the inexpressible comfort of feeling safe with a person, having neither to weigh thoughts or measure words
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Your responce brought a lump to my throat. I would love to be a surrogate grandfather and really get to know you better, if you would allow.
{{hugs}} many of them!
Mike
Friendship is the inexpressible comfort of feeling safe with a person, having neither to weigh thoughts or measure words
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marc
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Needs to get a life! |
Registered: March 2003
Messages: 4729
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No person can learn anything if they already know it all....
Life is great for me... Most of the time... But then I meet people online... Very few are real friends... Many say they are but know nothing of what it means... Some say they are, but are so shallow...
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But nobody knows it all, right?....
We do not remember days...we remember moments.
Cesare Pavese
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marc
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Needs to get a life! |
Registered: March 2003
Messages: 4729
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within the first week of classes, some grad student would inevitably attempt to blindside me and I would point blank ask him/her... "How can you expect to learn anything if you already know the answers?"
Then I asked if they wanted to take over the lecture....
Problem solved.....
Life is great for me... Most of the time... But then I meet people online... Very few are real friends... Many say they are but know nothing of what it means... Some say they are, but are so shallow...
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smith
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On fire! |
Registered: January 1970
Messages: 1095
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There is a time for strong wind and a time for soft breeze. Likewise, there's a time for older wisdom and a time for youthful exuberance.
How can opening the window and letting in a fresh breeze hurt?
Why do young voices, questioning and articulate, cause trepidation in the heart of a wise man?
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e
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On fire! |
Location: currently So Cal
Registered: May 2002
Messages: 1179
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do not cause trepidation in the heart of wise men, only in those men who think they are.
Think good thoughts,
e
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Re: Maybe, just maybe, we all feel out of place.... 
Mike 
Perhaps it should have been tennis! 
