Posted on 02/09/2007 6:33:28 AM PST by rellimpank
You are so right. Most people take what we have for granted but actually it is relatively new to our culture and society. What was a real eye opener to me though was when I got stationed in Naples, Italy in 1977. Taking a crammed city bus, I was amazed and sickened at how bad it stunk. No concept of bodily hygene.
I never smoked but used to drink. Hung out in a lot of bars and my clothes carried the smoke smell.
And no moral framework in which to apply that time.
A surfeit of riches and a dearth of spirituality.
It's no coincidence that one of the things prisons used to do -- and boot camps STILL do -- is to work their charges like field hands. Get 'em up early, put 'em to work, stay on 'em all day long, and put 'em to bed when they're dead on their feet. Why? Because they don't have time to feel sorry for themselves. They don't have time to miss Mom and Dad or the Gang or the carefree life they used to live. They don't have time or energy to plot and scheme or think of "better ways." It's all they can do to make it through the day.
And at the end, they can look back and say that that day wasn't wasted, that regardless of how trivial the accomplishment, it wasn't directed solely for their own benefit. Their labor went to some goal beyond themselves, even if it was digging a ditch that the next squad had to fill in or chopping weeds out of a roadside ditch.
I don't mean to sound Goebbel-esque, but arbeit can macht frei under the right circumstances. And if it can't, then ennui can't either, that's for certain.
I have met many vegans who are overweight. I try to gently break it to them that Twinkies are not a vegetable.
How can you hate the smell of coffee?? The best part of waking up is Folgers in your cup, you know.
Lets say a different concept. It's really only in the last several decades (and only in a few places on this planet) that perfectly normal body oder has became an obsession.
"If you are a smoker - you can't smell it."
Look, don't tell me what I can or can't smell. For one, I have quit for a fairly long period, so that my sense of smell became more sensitive. Even as a smoker, however, I can also smell it in an elevator that another smoker has just ridden up in after having a smoke outside. I fully understand that non-smokers find it to be an offensive odor. To which I say "get over it". It's just one of the many annoyances in life that we all have to live with. Smokers have been driven out of offices, bars, restaurants, malls, and every other public space, including many open-air spaces. If that's not good enough, then make tobacco illegal and deal with all the unintended (but predictable) consequences of that.
I don't know, but I find the smell of coffee offensive. Roasting beans really stink. When someone sits down next to me in a conference room with a fresh, steaming cup of coffee it just about makes we want to gag. However, I realize that a large proportion of my co-workers are addicted to caffeine and need their regular coffee fixes all through the day, and I have the civility and respect for others that some on this thread lack, so I don't make a big deal about it.
You don't sound Goebbel-esque at all. I think people have a lot of time to feel sorry for themselves nowadays, especially the non-working poor. In fact, even when I have found myself getting into a funk about something, the way I usually get out of it is to turn on the radio and get cleaning! Nothing like washing a dirty floor to get you out of the doldrums (he he).
I don't find anything offensive except hippy stink. There's a guy who uses the same classroom as me in college. He is trying to grow dreads and he and his stinky hippy girlfriend leave a cloud of ganja-stink and patchouli wherever they go. Now I know why the 60s anti war protesters got hit with the firehose.
For the most part, people who eat that way are slimmer, but the thing I've noted over the years is that most people who have lived this lifestyle for any length of time look pretty bad - gaunt and haggard - they never look healthy or glowing. Just my personal observations. Thin isn't everything.
Everyone has their own smell. We have all been conditioned to hate tobacco smell, but I can remember when people had a different opinion.
I mean offensive purely in that it offends my sense of smell. I don't actually take any offense from it.
Dishes exist to be eaten.
Manual labor is quite a relaxing pasttime. Gives you time to work out problems in your head while keeping your body busy. I do that when I mow the lawn or clean my garage.
I once dated a girl who didn't smoke.
I made her put a dirty ashtray in her mouth.
I'm not talking about the smell of smoke - I'm talking about that other smell that you cannot smell until you have gone a year or two without smoking. Go a couple of years without a cigarette and you'll see what I mean.
No need to get so defensive about smoking, though I did the same thing when I smoked.
yes a smokin' chick was against smokin'.
You are correct. The reason why is that the body needs both what veggies and animal products offer. Just the lack of protein alone makes the bones weaker.
HAHAHA! Yep. I thought I was the only one who cleaned his way to happiness! I suspect we do it because it asserts our control over our environment. We may not be able to solve all our life's problems, but by George, we can get those hard-water stains out of the kitchen sink!
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