[at-l] Thoughs (OT)

[greyowl@rcn.com (greyowl@rcn.com)]

There is a young lady in our building (young compared to me) who
is into eastern philosophy.  We spend our lunches talking about
various ways of viewing the world around us.  She would make a
lousy through hiker as she spends a lot of time observing the world
around, not only with her eyes, but through her sense of touch and
sense of smell.  She on the other hand thinks that maybe I good
really get into Zen.  An interesting observation on her part and one
that I do not completely agree with.  The one thing that she has
noticed is that I try my best to understand all sides to a discussion
and that I try not to be judgmental.  This because I am not
confortational.  I find that the person making the loudest noise is
the one most despised by others.  I try very hard not to jump into
the middle of the frays on this list and try to read every message
posted about each topic.  I really do not care about some of the
topic and I end up deleting lots of messages.  I also feel that a
thread over two days old is no longer worth following, so I end up
deleting those messages also.  Life is way too short for such (to
me) petty arguements or discussions.  So what am I left with on
this list?  Lots of interesting reading, some good jokes and lots of
friends that I have never met (will I have met some of you).

I have taken a lot of what my lady friend has told me and have
examined myself and my relationship to the woeld around me.  My
wife hads noticed the change and she feels that it has been for the
good.  I have a lot of half formed thoughts that I would like to
eventually share with the list it which may be wildly of topic.  I
request tolerance from the members of the list.

One question that was asked of me this weekend is why most
people try to conquer the outdoors instead of enjoying it the
outdoors?  Why must we climb a mountain, hike a trail, canoe
down a river?  I think that I know why, but I would like to hear other
peoples thoughts and ideas.

Grey Owl