I’m aware that anything I might say will be trite. So I’ll say this trite thing: It’s part and parcel of the empathetic life not to be dead inside, with both its ups and downs—ups and downs that most empathetic people share. To those who even remotely cherish empathy, more empathetic people are needed in the world. And it can be painful when these empathetic folk no longer are as numerous due to, well, joining the clan of the non-empathetic people that are out there. This isn’t not about cheering you up. It’s about wanting strength in you during the hard times that presently are. — javra
Sometimes I wish I were fully dead inside, I would sacrifice the pleasure in order to have no pain. — Lone Wolf
Not sure if this will help - I don't have a lot of friends, but I have found friends here. If you hang around a little while, you will too. Maybe that's not enough, but this could be a place where you feel at home. — T Clark
True. The weather here was crappy (think cyclones) probably part of the reason my mood is out of whack. Wildly up and down. The poor horse was spooked when I tried to get her in the barn today. :sad: — Lone Wolf
Hmm, yeah. I have found two out of my three friends here lol. And those two I don't know with certainty if they want to stay friends. — Lone Wolf
Get back on your horse or camp out. Even hiking on your own can really change you for the better. — TimeLine
Over the months we have known each other, we've clashed once or twice about this reason vs. intuition thing. Sometimes you've been mean to me and I went off with my tail between my legs like a frightened puppy. Poor T Clark. Now I'm ready to take you on like a man!!! :strong: Well... — T Clark
Anyway. In a normal situation on the forum, with someone reasonable like, say, Sapientia — T Clark
You're wrong, and you're blind. :grimace: — T Clark
To believe that reason is anything except a veneer we paste over what our hearts tell us is self-deception. I have always seen that reason is something we add later to justify what we already believe. Over the past year, I've also come to see that some people can use it as a tool to guide them to a place where they can be free of the shackles our feelings put on us. I have a lot of respect for that. — T Clark
That doesn't change which comes first. We do what we do because of who, what, we are. It comes from inside. The, I don't know, is it irony, is that you and I come down in just about the same place in terms of what is the right way to live our lives. Compassion, honesty, honor, strength, generosity, grace. I must admit, you have come closer to that ideal than I have, but that's not a matter of reason, it's a matter of character. — T Clark
What you have identified is not a distinction between intuition and carefully thought out decisions, but you have only identified how it is that bad information results in bad decisions. That will be the case whether the decision is knee jerk or whether you write out the pros and cons in your unicorn adorned journal and deliberate upon the reasons for days. If I believe that people are prone to cheat because I am a cheating dog, then I will necessary allow that bias to impact my conclusion that you too are a cheating dog despite the scant other evidence supporting it. My conclusion is rational in its own right, considering my data points are derived from my own experience, which is that I have cheated much in the past.. — Hanover
What I mean here is that if you have a past that is filled with all sorts of unhealthy events, those events will drive many of your decisions, and you will think them rational whether the decision is well thought out or not. — Hanover
And as an aside, I really do believe in the ineffability of thought and ideas. In fact, so much so, that I find those philosophies that deny it completely incomprehensible. — Hanover
The voice of reason. — TimeLine
Who said anything about a 'veneer'? Reason is there to interpret, to explain, to understand and if reason is disordered or in chaos - i.e. irrational - translating that intuitive experience is impossible. It is reliant on your reason and rationality and they are not mutually exclusive, separate where one precedes the other, but bound together. — TimeLine
capacity for inauthentic interpretations, for self-deceit, my desire to further ameliorate my knowledge and understanding so that when I reflect on experiences, when I try to network through the complexity and the puzzle of my emotions and feelings, I can piece it all together. — TimeLine
...reason disordered leaves any authentic understanding of our subjective emotional experiences false. — TimeLine
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