Poll: How's Life?

[Ursus Astrorum]

Life is honestly what people make of it. I personally find my life to be pretty nice. I've got a decent roof over my head, know how to cook, and I'm capable of keeping things the way they are by doing the things I love. Sure, I'm not able to travel the world just yet, but I'll get there at some point.

 

[Singing Gremlin]

Mainly I'd say I'm learning to develop a clearer (read: more positive) perception of life. So, overall not so good now, but with goodness perceptible on the horizon.

 

[PsykoDragon]

I just had a healthy beautiful baby boy not but 10 days ago. Life couldn't be better for me, right now.

Congratulations!

I see. But that means no matter how happy you can be, there will always be a slight fear in the back of your mind every once in a while, where the most usual fear would be to lose what it is that makes you so happy. But does this work in reverse? Could there be people whose lives are such clumps of pain & depression that they can't have a single happy thought on their minds?

 

[AntiAntagonist]

Drinkin a beer at an office gig with game systems... life's good!

 

[xitel]

Life is a roller coaster. You can't really enjoy the highs without suffering the lows.

Is that really true? I've read about "Duality", & I've heard many people quote what you said, but can't that be unbalanced? Can't you have, say, a bad year in school, & spend the rest of your life in luxury & fun, without any bad sides to your life, until you die? Can't you have a great childhood, & everything goes downhill from there forever, to the point that even if you TRY to have fun, you can't? This is purely theoretical of course, but can't it be?

Well yes, that's true. But I'm not saying it's impossible to have one without the other. I'm saying it's impossible to enjoy the good parts to their fullest without having the bad times. Yes, you could have a life with nothing bad in it, but that would set your definition of normal at what most people would consider good. So things would have to be great for you to think of them as good.

What I mean is, say normal is 0. If you live your whole life at 1, then things would have to be at 2 for you to think they were better. But if you were at -1 and went up to 1, what would be just good for most people would be great for you. Make sense?

 

[PsykoDragon]

Life is a roller coaster. You can't really enjoy the highs without suffering the lows.

Is that really true? I've read about "Duality", & I've heard many people quote what you said, but can't that be unbalanced? Can't you have, say, a bad year in school, & spend the rest of your life in luxury & fun, without any bad sides to your life, until you die? Can't you have a great childhood, & everything goes downhill from there forever, to the point that even if you TRY to have fun, you can't? This is purely theoretical of course, but can't it be?

Well yes, that's true. But I'm not saying it's impossible to have one without the other. I'm saying it's impossible to enjoy the good parts to their fullest without having the bad times. Yes, you could have a life with nothing bad in it, but that would set your definition of normal at what most people would consider good. So things would have to be great for you to think of them as good.

What I mean is, say normal is 0. If you live your whole life at 1, then things would have to be at 2 for you to think they were better. But if you were at -1 and went up to 1, what would be just good for most people would be great for you. Make sense?

Yes, of course. Relativity. I wonder though, if a person lived his whole life at, say, 10, would he really think his life was normal? Wouldn't he know how much his life rocks, appreciate it, & be enjoying it? Same goes for someone living his whole life at -10.

 

[xitel]

Life is a roller coaster. You can't really enjoy the highs without suffering the lows.

Is that really true? I've read about "Duality", & I've heard many people quote what you said, but can't that be unbalanced? Can't you have, say, a bad year in school, & spend the rest of your life in luxury & fun, without any bad sides to your life, until you die? Can't you have a great childhood, & everything goes downhill from there forever, to the point that even if you TRY to have fun, you can't? This is purely theoretical of course, but can't it be?

Well yes, that's true. But I'm not saying it's impossible to have one without the other. I'm saying it's impossible to enjoy the good parts to their fullest without having the bad times. Yes, you could have a life with nothing bad in it, but that would set your definition of normal at what most people would consider good. So things would have to be great for you to think of them as good.

What I mean is, say normal is 0. If you live your whole life at 1, then things would have to be at 2 for you to think they were better. But if you were at -1 and went up to 1, what would be just good for most people would be great for you. Make sense?

Yes, of course. Relativity. I wonder though, if a person lived his whole life at, say, 10, would he really think his life was normal? Wouldn't he know how much his life rocks, appreciate it, & be enjoying it? Same goes for someone living his whole life at -10.

Well, yes, they would know it was excellent. But think about this: who would be happier? A man living at -10 that got to spend a month at 10, or a man who lived at 10 his whole life? For that one month, the man at -10 would be infinitely happier than the man at 10.

 

[this_was_a_mistake]

The last option is kind of disturbing.

 

[Dapper Ninja]

Meh, it's pretty "meh". Nothing really notable or interesting in my life right now. Unless you count someone crashing a Hummer into my yard this morning interesting. I don't. Other people seem to, though. No idea why.

 

[blackcherry]

I think my dad best summed it up when we were both diagnosed as manically depressed. I asked my dad how he had felt and survived for so long

'I'm content, which is more than a lot of people can say. I just put one foot in front of the other with my eye on the horizon.'

Everyone has good and bad points in there life. It takes a truly bad experience to appreciate life just that little more, and though it isn't fashionable to say, as you get older most of life's worries become more and more petty. Having a good sense of humour helps a lot as well.

 

[Duck Sandwich]

For now, I'm taking a break between High School and College. If my life were a TV show, this would be the filler season. While I'm waiting until September to go to college, I'm going to find a job and continue doing martial arts. Other than that, it's likely that nothing worth noting will happen in between now and college. Aside from being perpetually disgruntled over being single despite all of my efforts to change that, Things are good.

I keep on looking to the past and thinking "Man, those were better days." But then I realize that I was spending those days anticipating something that would never come to pass (ie. being able to hang out with certain friends, doing certain stuff). Now I know that my life is better than it has ever been.

 

[PsykoDragon]

Life is a roller coaster. You can't really enjoy the highs without suffering the lows.

Is that really true? I've read about "Duality", & I've heard many people quote what you said, but can't that be unbalanced? Can't you have, say, a bad year in school, & spend the rest of your life in luxury & fun, without any bad sides to your life, until you die? Can't you have a great childhood, & everything goes downhill from there forever, to the point that even if you TRY to have fun, you can't? This is purely theoretical of course, but can't it be?

Well yes, that's true. But I'm not saying it's impossible to have one without the other. I'm saying it's impossible to enjoy the good parts to their fullest without having the bad times. Yes, you could have a life with nothing bad in it, but that would set your definition of normal at what most people would consider good. So things would have to be great for you to think of them as good.

What I mean is, say normal is 0. If you live your whole life at 1, then things would have to be at 2 for you to think they were better. But if you were at -1 and went up to 1, what would be just good for most people would be great for you. Make sense?

Yes, of course. Relativity. I wonder though, if a person lived his whole life at, say, 10, would he really think his life was normal? Wouldn't he know how much his life rocks, appreciate it, & be enjoying it? Same goes for someone living his whole life at -10.

Well, yes, they would know it was excellent. But think about this: who would be happier? A man living at -10 that got to spend a month at 10, or a man who lived at 10 his whole life? For that one month, the man at -10 would be infinitely happier than the man at 10.

Of course. But his whole life would eventually overshadow that. & in the end, if he comes to this thread? He'd almost definitely select the last choice in this poll.

It's nice to see that there's more people whose lives are positive than negative in this poll so far. & then you have the "Meh"'s, who are more than the others by far :/ In hindsight, I should've made 2 "Meh"'s: "Meh, could be worse", & "Meh, could be better". Tell me Meh's, how do YOU feel?

 

[xitel]

Life is a roller coaster. You can't really enjoy the highs without suffering the lows.

Is that really true? I've read about "Duality", & I've heard many people quote what you said, but can't that be unbalanced? Can't you have, say, a bad year in school, & spend the rest of your life in luxury & fun, without any bad sides to your life, until you die? Can't you have a great childhood, & everything goes downhill from there forever, to the point that even if you TRY to have fun, you can't? This is purely theoretical of course, but can't it be?

Well yes, that's true. But I'm not saying it's impossible to have one without the other. I'm saying it's impossible to enjoy the good parts to their fullest without having the bad times. Yes, you could have a life with nothing bad in it, but that would set your definition of normal at what most people would consider good. So things would have to be great for you to think of them as good.

What I mean is, say normal is 0. If you live your whole life at 1, then things would have to be at 2 for you to think they were better. But if you were at -1 and went up to 1, what would be just good for most people would be great for you. Make sense?

Yes, of course. Relativity. I wonder though, if a person lived his whole life at, say, 10, would he really think his life was normal? Wouldn't he know how much his life rocks, appreciate it, & be enjoying it? Same goes for someone living his whole life at -10.

Well, yes, they would know it was excellent. But think about this: who would be happier? A man living at -10 that got to spend a month at 10, or a man who lived at 10 his whole life? For that one month, the man at -10 would be infinitely happier than the man at 10.

Of course. But his whole life would eventually overshadow that. & in the end, if he comes to this thread? He'd almost definitely select the last choice in this poll.

It's nice to see that there's more people whose lives are positive than negative in this poll so far. & then you have the "Meh"'s, who are more than the others by far :/ In hindsight, I should've made 2 "Meh"'s: "Meh, could be worse", & "Meh, could be better". Tell me Meh's, how do YOU feel?

Well, what if he gets to live the last 10 years of his life at 10? What would he say then?

 

[Sewblon]

I am in a vegatative state at the moment but I have not dabbled in masochism for a year so I can't really complain, not like I ever had the guts to draw blood or anything.

 

[PedroSteckecilo]

Life is thoroughly meh,

Basically everything is an up and a down right now, so while things aren't bad enough to be depressed, things aren't good enough to feel great.

 

[Danny Ocean]

I chose the bottom one, although that really depends on whether or not it's skeleton faced and features night-visible hands.

 

[Hoppetussa]

It's like a Zelda-game. It's interesting and fun. Sometimes it can be frustrating. Sometimes you're looking for the last heart piece, and sometimes you have to use a walkthrough.

 

[The_Prophet]

Definitely, Meh.

 

[PsykoDragon]

Life is a roller coaster. You can't really enjoy the highs without suffering the lows.

Is that really true? I've read about "Duality", & I've heard many people quote what you said, but can't that be unbalanced? Can't you have, say, a bad year in school, & spend the rest of your life in luxury & fun, without any bad sides to your life, until you die? Can't you have a great childhood, & everything goes downhill from there forever, to the point that even if you TRY to have fun, you can't? This is purely theoretical of course, but can't it be?

Well yes, that's true. But I'm not saying it's impossible to have one without the other. I'm saying it's impossible to enjoy the good parts to their fullest without having the bad times. Yes, you could have a life with nothing bad in it, but that would set your definition of normal at what most people would consider good. So things would have to be great for you to think of them as good.

What I mean is, say normal is 0. If you live your whole life at 1, then things would have to be at 2 for you to think they were better. But if you were at -1 and went up to 1, what would be just good for most people would be great for you. Make sense?

Yes, of course. Relativity. I wonder though, if a person lived his whole life at, say, 10, would he really think his life was normal? Wouldn't he know how much his life rocks, appreciate it, & be enjoying it? Same goes for someone living his whole life at -10.

Well, yes, they would know it was excellent. But think about this: who would be happier? A man living at -10 that got to spend a month at 10, or a man who lived at 10 his whole life? For that one month, the man at -10 would be infinitely happier than the man at 10.

Of course. But his whole life would eventually overshadow that. & in the end, if he comes to this thread? He'd almost definitely select the last choice in this poll.

It's nice to see that there's more people whose lives are positive than negative in this poll so far. & then you have the "Meh"'s, who are more than the others by far :/ In hindsight, I should've made 2 "Meh"'s: "Meh, could be worse", & "Meh, could be better". Tell me Meh's, how do YOU feel?

Well, what if he gets to live the last 10 years of his life at 10? What would he say then?

Yeah, I was thinking of that. The man will die, & let's say God asks him "How was Life?", & I agree, he'll say "Great!" But let him spend eternity mulling over it. All the time wasted at -10. All the terrible things that happened, remembering how he felt then. & God asks him again, "How was Life?"

Using an inanimate example isn't the best in my opinion, but saying that the scoring of life is a mixture, or a solution, would describe how I'm thinking about it. You have a cup nearly full of -10, & you top it up with +10, which stays on top while dissolving little-by-little. For a while all you can see is the +10, but as it dissolves, you realize how much -10 there is in there. That man would probably say "Life wasn't very good."

No matter how good or bad your life becomes, memories of how life was before will influence you. "God, all the time wasted being -10, why? All the terrible things that happened to me then, why?"

 

[xitel]

Life is a roller coaster. You can't really enjoy the highs without suffering the lows.

Is that really true? I've read about "Duality", & I've heard many people quote what you said, but can't that be unbalanced? Can't you have, say, a bad year in school, & spend the rest of your life in luxury & fun, without any bad sides to your life, until you die? Can't you have a great childhood, & everything goes downhill from there forever, to the point that even if you TRY to have fun, you can't? This is purely theoretical of course, but can't it be?

Well yes, that's true. But I'm not saying it's impossible to have one without the other. I'm saying it's impossible to enjoy the good parts to their fullest without having the bad times. Yes, you could have a life with nothing bad in it, but that would set your definition of normal at what most people would consider good. So things would have to be great for you to think of them as good.

What I mean is, say normal is 0. If you live your whole life at 1, then things would have to be at 2 for you to think they were better. But if you were at -1 and went up to 1, what would be just good for most people would be great for you. Make sense?

Yes, of course. Relativity. I wonder though, if a person lived his whole life at, say, 10, would he really think his life was normal? Wouldn't he know how much his life rocks, appreciate it, & be enjoying it? Same goes for someone living his whole life at -10.

Well, yes, they would know it was excellent. But think about this: who would be happier? A man living at -10 that got to spend a month at 10, or a man who lived at 10 his whole life? For that one month, the man at -10 would be infinitely happier than the man at 10.

Of course. But his whole life would eventually overshadow that. & in the end, if he comes to this thread? He'd almost definitely select the last choice in this poll.

It's nice to see that there's more people whose lives are positive than negative in this poll so far. & then you have the "Meh"'s, who are more than the others by far :/ In hindsight, I should've made 2 "Meh"'s: "Meh, could be worse", & "Meh, could be better". Tell me Meh's, how do YOU feel?

Well, what if he gets to live the last 10 years of his life at 10? What would he say then?

Yeah, I was thinking of that. The man will die, & let's say God asks him "How was Life?", & I agree, he'll say "Great!" But let him spend eternity mulling over it. All the time wasted at -10. All the terrible things that happened, remembering how he felt then. & God asks him again, "How was Life?"

Using an inanimate example isn't the best in my opinion, but saying that the scoring of life is a mixture, or a solution, would describe how I'm thinking about it. You have a cup nearly full of -10, & you top it up with +10, which stays on top while dissolving little-by-little. For a while all you can see is the +10, but as it dissolves, you realize how much -10 there is in there. That man would probably say "Life wasn't very good."

No matter how good or bad your life becomes, memories of how life was before will influence you. "God, all the time wasted being -10, why? All the terrible things that happened to me then, why?"

Well, to continue the numbers metaphor, the point is that if he lived for 10 years at 10, then it would feel to him like 11. But for the man who lives at 10, it would only feel like 10. (I'm assuming 10 as the maximum physically possible, while higher numbers would be mentally possible).