Recent Events - Deep Breath - English

Over these past few weeks (which was the reason for my Old Man Ryzom post), I have encountered 2 toons whom act as if this is WoW (sorry I do not know of any newer or more recent games) – and after a conversation with a SGM who gave clarity (I really miss talking with Arionasis) – I realize that obnoxious, teenage-boy behavior (which is not only giving the Marauder faction an unnecessary bad rap, it) is the new reality for the Rootball. I thought of a few things that I would like to share, whether they are agreed with or not is not really my concern, just feel that if I express them, that I can forget about it and move-on to hanging out with friends, and hunting for crappy mats.

To start; were you to live three thousand years, or even thirty thousand, remember that a man can lose only the life he is living, and he can live no other life than the one he loses. Whether he lives a long time or a short time amounts to the same thing, for the present moment is of equal duration for everyone, and that is all any man possesses. This is why the loss of life seems so momentary. A man cannot lose the past or the future—how can he be robbed of what is not his? Remember, then, these two truths: first, that everything from the beginning is just the same pattern repeating itself, and it makes no difference whether you watch this same show for a hundred years, or for two hundred, or for all eternity; and second, that the man who dies young loses not a jot more than the man who dies old. A man can only be deprived of the present moment, for this is all he has, and how can a man lose what he doesn't possess?

The next is; it is not enough to watch the days we've already lived pile up on one side and those that remain melt away on the other. We must also consider that even if we were to live longer, it is not at all certain our minds would retain their ability to understand what is happening around us or to grasp its significance, whether human or divine. Just because the mind begins to go doesn't mean that breathing and eating are impaired, or that imagination, desire, and the like are inhibited. But without a mind, man is no longer able to be the master of himself, to understand exactly what is expected of him, to judge the evidence of his senses, to know when it's time to quit this life, or in other words, to make any of those calculations that require an intellect in reasonably good working order. We must get on with our lives, then, not only because we are closing on death with each passing day, but because our mental capacities may desert us before death decides to take us.

And finally; in the mind of a disciplined and pure man, you will find no sign of infection, no running sores, no wounds that haven't healed. It will not be this man's fate to quit life unfulfilled like the actor who fails to complete his lines and walks offstage before the play is ended. What is more, there is nothing obsequious or conceited about him; he neither depends on others nor is afraid to ask for help; he answers to no man for who he is and for what he does, yet he hides nothing.

My parting shot is this; "Life is simple, unpredictable, and beautiful but always remember that even though something ends, something new begins, so take a deep breath and move on." – Zatarga