What's Your Story?

[Selene]

This is my story.

I tried to go to heaven, where all the good people are supposed to go. I met St. Peter at the gate and he refused to let me in. He told me to go to Hell.

I followed advice and went to Hell. Satan the Devil kicked me out of Hell. He said: we have enough trouble here already; we don't need you!

So I came back to planet Earth and that's why I'm here.

[turkeyfoot]

Theres one way to test the theory. )

Never pass up a splendid opportunity to make something sound better than it really is. )

I cant make a general comment about everyone or most people. I can more accurately say something about people who are close or those for whom I have more personal details.

The women I grew up with were bigger than life and often approached life in theatrical ways which I refer to as manic. Inside I sensed despair and unhappiness. I saw myself as down to earth. They saw me as boring.

After my sperm donors death, I took 2 hrs to relate a story to my siblings. Something they could not have known until I told them. In that instance I could see a decided resistance to accept the telling on its merits preferring instead to hold on to the feelings they wanted to keep. They were sympathetic towards me but unabashed in their feelings that we not dwell on it, by noting my take and wanting to move on. And instead insert a narrative or bs, as you say, that theyd rather promote.

Ive wondered how my sister, who says she has the happy gene and that she is love, handles the patently absurd notion. Although she has never confessed her need to drink, a reliable family member told me she drinks heavily. So yes, it happens in fact, the idea of maintaining a facade that says bs. But few rise, to that level in my personal life. Far more to see in public figures.

In a way, AR and other authors who made heroic characters, that I read about in my youth, provided intestinal fortitude that was missing in my personal life. So for me, though they were fictional and may have had some bs quotient they exemplified an aspect of humanness I wanted. I thrived on and needed those inspired stories made up of created characters, real lives too. In that way I somewhat avoided the reality of really bullshitty things and instead stayed focused and dwelt on positives that had value for me. I really think these characters provided some of the impetus to "undo" and replace the damaging effects from my early bio. ) Thankfully there are enough real life stories that help to focus on value laden virtues. A few positives have an appreciable affect.

[Peter]

Turkeyfoot wrote: In a way, AR and other authors who made heroic characters, that I read about in my youth, provided intestinal fortitude that was missing in my personal life . . . . I really think these characters provided some of the impetus to "undo" and replace the damaging effects from my early bio. ) . . . .
end quote

Isn’t it an odd human trait to “become” a character? I admired my Dad and several characters as I grew up, but when I was a little kid, I wanted to be like Popeye, The Lone Ranger, and others - and for a time in my mind I was. When I read The Fountainhead when I was 16 or 17, it also profoundly affected my thinking, speech, and decisions. Weird. After a while I stopped trying to live as a fuzzy, deluded character. I tried to stop searching for those snappy Roarkian one liners too. The last time I watched Gary Cooper as Howard Roark I was impressed though he still seemed to have Asperger’s syndrome. Howard was just the kind of guy who lives his obsessed life and dies alone, spiteful and unhappy. Don’t be that guy. You can be a high achiever and a loving and caring person too. Rand’s ideal psychology is hellish and not desirable. She got most of the rest, right
Peter

[turkeyfoot]

"Isn’t it an odd human trait to “become” a character? Weird."

Yes. Maybe no more weird than emulating virtues by first seeing and then adopting examples of good human traits. I knew what integrity and honesty were far earlier than what AR wrote. I wasnt sucked into an AR psychological vortex.

For better or worse they were beat into me so I adopted them as protection and then by extension knew they worked for me and made sense. I had baseball and basketball coaches and players, and neighbors that served as real life examples for me that I saw being less monsterous than my parent. From birth to 14 I wasnt allowed to watch TV, other than a rare invite. My father would check the TV for warmth radiating from the set to insure we didnt. Never wanted to be Scooby Doo. Never wanted to be as strong as Superman, just stronger than I was in the midst of terrorism at home. It was real so I didnt need to ruminate over fantasy heroes, it wouldnt save me from anything, I needed to see human virtues expressed to know life could be better than it was.

Strangely or perhaps not, as they were simply good folks, they were my heroes.

[anthony]

"Don't be that guy". ha, right. An adult endeavoring to "become a character" is heading for disillusionment .

Roark is after all, an abstraction or 'symbol' of independence, integrity, rationality and courage.

Take the moral virtues (if one admires them) leave the rest, I'd think.

[moralist]

PDS writes:

We all know people who are "angry" people, through and through. My experience is such people are predisposed to anger in large part because of the "story" they have concocted in their heads about what has happened to them in the past. "My parents were alcoholics, I was mistreated, and I am the unfair victim of life's circumstances", etc.

The story "spring loads" the anger, in other words.

I'd also add that the need to be angry is what drives the false "innocent victim" narrative.

All angry people who do evil first fantasize themselves as "innocent victims".

Greg

[Selene]

PDS writes:

We all know people who are "angry" people, through and through. My experience is such people are predisposed to anger in large part because of the "story" they have concocted in their heads about what has happened to them in the past. "My parents were alcoholics, I was mistreated, and I am the unfair victim of life's circumstances", etc.

The story "spring loads" the anger, in other words.

I'd also add that the need to be angry is what drives the false "innocent victim" narrative.

All angry people who do evil first fantasize themselves as "innocent victims".

Greg

Correct.

It is the hidden justification, or, cover.

Very close to the "psychological state" of Jim when he furtively peeks to see if his "story" is working on Cheryl.

"Spring loads" is an interesting image.

Especially for the person who sets them and can walk the person into them psychologically.

A...

[Brant Gaede]

In high school I once got very angry. I attacked an ant hill with stones. Bet I killed several hundred ants. (Made me feel good.)

That's when I converted from the Muslim religion to Christianity--before the swat team got there.

I wasn't a terrorist--except to the ants. I didn't have pipe bombs and body armor and stones in my home. (Now I do--not!)

--Brant

[Selene]

In high school I once got very angry. I attacked an ant hill with stones. Bet I killed several hundred ants. (Made me feel good.)

That's when I converted from the Muslim religion to Christianity--before the swat team got there.

I wasn't a terrorist--except to the ants. I didn't have pipe bombs and body armor and stones in my home. (Now I do--not!)

--Brant

Lol...one of our, my two cousins and I were inseparable, we would make war on anthills with the Daisy lever action BB rifle...we imagined that we were a mortar position...we would go through the imaginary routine...firing one round and then the "spotter," whoever had the scope from one of the 22's would announce rt lt + 1 foot - second round - last adjustment and then fire for effect...

Ah, it was so nice being 10 and being trained with weapons by competent parents...

A...

[Brant Gaede]

The American way gone away. We got to shoot .22s at Boy Scout camp. Some boys had their own rifles. In high school in Tucson we had a shooting range for heavily barreled .22 target rifles, single shot. But not in my NJ HS.

In that CA mess, 14 murdered, I just bet it was one of those "gun free" venues. I wonder why the killers would dare to bring their assault rifles--shotguns--into such an unwelcoming place?

--Brant

sardonic commentary

[Selene]

Lol

I have a question or two...

What is the waiting period for pipe bombs?

Also, If Syed Rizwan Farook's Sharia whore Tashfeen Malik had a Pakistani passport, would that passport not have a picture on it?

If so, why do we continue to see her slot as a blank next to her very "devout Muslim" terrorist husband?

I am just following the orders of the exalted Homeland Security Agency's inspirational admonition to all us loyal Americans to say something, if we see something!

A...