Study - more and more young men are playing video games instead of getting jobs

[Moonbeam]

I think that would benefit from an operational definition of "attitude".

If a person is psychotic, is it for us to decide that it is not reality that the government has implanted a communication chip inside their skull?

What if a person is in frank denial? Or perhaps a person that has projected their rage onto another to absolve themselves from it?

We cannot contain all of ourselves within. Those that try often have poor boundaries and take responsibility for the failure of others to do the same. To contain themselves, they must find ways to be gratified in doing so. This can be highly functional, mind you. Objectively, who would deny that Mother Theresa or Ghandi were masochists? But they are celebrated nonetheless, and I believe they experienced much gratification in their suffering.

In working with patients, beyond a high threshold of risk of harm to self or other, I aim to merely bring people to the point of understanding their ability to choose which psychic reality is best for them, not to provide them with the correct "attitude".

But society is not my patient. Society's philosophy and laws influence strongly the psychic reality of the persons born within it. And, for that, I am not neutral. I want for the world a psychic reality with a full and rich internal experience, one whose pursuit of that is reinforced by the nature of the society itself.

I read somewhere that in the Apocrypha, Jesus said, Did you but suffer you would not suffer. It seems that is what happened to me. It seems also to be the reason that psychoanalysis can succeed. To suffer, I think, is to come to feel what one actually feels, that we live in an unconscious state of suffering. Reading your post I would also have to say that whether patient or society, you want to save all sentient beings even if the way you put it may be differently.

I have to consider what you say. You seemed to have introduced an ambivalence toward your understanding of what you write followed by a response indicating the reverse which tempts me to react in a contrary fashion without first appreciating what you say. I believe doing so would be a mistaken enactment of your past experiences.

Nonetheless, I will need time to consider things before approaching them more neutrally.

 

[Moonbeam]

I have to consider what you say. You seemed to have introduced an ambivalence toward your understanding of what you write followed by a response indicating the reverse which tempts me to react in a contrary fashion without first appreciating what you say. I believe doing so would be a mistaken enactment of your past experiences.

Nonetheless, I will need time to consider things before approaching them more neutrally.

I am not clever enough to feel I exactly know what you are saying here. I don't know what the ambiguity is, nor do I get what is reversed or what contrariness my word impel, but I don't feel in any rush for anything. I am sorry however for my lack of comprehension. Probably I don't see the implications in what I say that are probably there.

 

[werepossum]

That's a very millennial idea -- the very generation we are speculating reasons for their failures.

I grew up in a transition between generations. There certainly was some of things such as everyone getting trophies for participating in sports. And, at least in my household, it was clear that race had no place in the judgment of others. Yet these notions had not yet reach the hysterics of today where a child cannot succeed should they leave behind their peers.

It seems to me that our emphasis on ensuring equity has left many people in severe conflict with their own success. Since we punish so severely narcissism and racism, etc., we must ensure we are considerate to others if we are to win. If one cannot enjoy winning without guilt, why should we ask them to win? Since the rewards of success are guaranteed by showing up, why should anyone do anything else? To maintain self-esteem in this system, we merely need to provide evidence to ourselves that we are good enough to succeed if we want to. And it is so easy because we have elected to view those who succeed as a narcissistic, oppressive evil responsible for all our failings.

And, strangely, this is born out of moral truth. There is no role for narcissism in the advancement of the world. And there is no difference in the potential good of a person based on race, color, creed, gender, sexual orientation, body type, etc.

Yet, people aren't wired that way. Our chief need is to maintain our sense of self, even if that sense of self is a negative one. And we are very adept at doing so. And that self which we aspire to be? It is set in motion in our development by our introjected parents. If they are constantly undercutting your successes to make sure everything is "fair", then they undercut your success later in life.

Which sounds like a perverted way of saying that the progressive liberal ideal is right, and it's exactly the thing that will destroy society.

But that's not a heartwarming solution. The ideal of striving for equity is not a bad one at all -- it's good to try to protect against self-centeredness. In reality, though, development of narcissism and/or failure of empathy has little to do with instituting fairness behaviors. I think we can hold to these ideals yet be much more concerted about rewarding and purely enjoying success so long as it was earned. And if some other kid gets jealous, good. We all get jealous. Giving your kid a trophy because someone beat him doesn't make losing not suck, and it doesn't make him not jealous of the kid who won. But it does afford him a moralized defense against that jealousy. So, it makes it that much easier to maintain stability of the self in the face of sucking at life.

Really, people. We don't need to have everyone be losers for things to be fair.

What if this is not true? Or, alternatively, significantly less true than you believe? If this is the prevailing attitude independent of reality, would it not become a self-fulfilling prophecy?

For instance, I have 2 brothers. Neither has a college degree. Both started employment in their current careers at an entry level. Both of them make more money than I do. I think this is because, while both recognized that their positions were "beneath them", they did not use that as a reason to ask for more. They instead realized that they were adding value with the work they were doing -- to the company, to the customer, and so they tried to do it well, and perhaps more importantly, they saw opportunity to help everyone do better. This, of course, led to promotion and for one to development of interpersonal connections to start his own business.

There is some data on immigrants that suggests they are 4 times more likely to become millionaires than people born here. These are often people coming with strange names, appearances which are appalling to much of America, not speaking our language, limited education, and products of a genuinely corrupt and overtly oppressive government. While these factors often lead to struggle, tragedy, mental illness, etc., they prove the existence of significant opportunity that is being squandered by people born here under better conditions, even if they are still not good conditions.

And I say this not to insinuate that people are lazy and need to grow up and don't need help, aren't suffering, etc. Instead, I merely wish to point to the value systems we have here and my feelings on the underpinnings of their existence, because I think our active choices and conscious beliefs today will determine the chances of success in our next generation, and I fear we are trying to run faster to escape oppression without understanding that we are choosing to run in the direction of it instead.

Two excellent, excellent posts which deserve to be quoted with a hearty "well done". Far too many people assume that since the world has shifted, it has changed completely. And as you point out, it can be a self-fulfilling prophecy. In that respect, foreigners have an advantage - they have not yet been educated that things are hopeless and the American dream is dead, so they go out and achieve it the same way countless generations of immigrants and native-born Americans have. One case in point: the Vietnamese in New Orleans after Katrina. I watched two families sweeping up the street in front of what used to be their houses. Each had a tiny, pitiable stack of things salvaged, mostly small saucers and dishes. Their efforts were horribly misguided, doomed to fail, a waste of time - and all I could think was give us ten or twenty million more people like that and we'd once again be on top of the world.

The ultimate irony is that if we had eugenics, we'd probably be eliminating the hardest working people in America. And no doubt patting ourselves on the back for our cleverness.

 

[dead_smiley]

My cousin has a plumbing business. He can't get people to work. Most can't pass a drug test. The ones that can only want to work 2-3 days a week. Jobs are there. I really hate to say this but the illegals are simply filling a void. I hate that more than I can express.

Sent from my overpriced smartphone

 

[IGBT]

Must be those basement dwellers hillary was talking about.

 

[OverVolt]

What if this is not true? Or, alternatively, significantly less true than you believe? If this is the prevailing attitude independent of reality, would it not become a self-fulfilling prophecy?

For instance, I have 2 brothers. Neither has a college degree. Both started employment in their current careers at an entry level. Both of them make more money than I do. I think this is because, while both recognized that their positions were "beneath them", they did not use that as a reason to ask for more. They instead realized that they were adding value with the work they were doing -- to the company, to the customer, and so they tried to do it well, and perhaps more importantly, they saw opportunity to help everyone do better. This, of course, led to promotion and for one to development of interpersonal connections to start his own business.

There is some data on immigrants that suggests they are 4 times more likely to become millionaires than people born here. These are often people coming with strange names, appearances which are appalling to much of America, not speaking our language, limited education, and products of a genuinely corrupt and overtly oppressive government. While these factors often lead to struggle, tragedy, mental illness, etc., they prove the existence of significant opportunity that is being squandered by people born here under better conditions, even if they are still not good conditions.

And I say this not to insinuate that people are lazy and need to grow up and don't need help, aren't suffering, etc. Instead, I merely wish to point to the value systems we have here and my feelings on the underpinnings of their existence, because I think our active choices and conscious beliefs today will determine the chances of success in our next generation, and I fear we are trying to run faster to escape oppression without understanding that we are choosing to run in the direction of it instead.

What is this amazing good everyone is supposed to be doing? There are only so many research jobs, there are only so many business jobs. There are only so many small businesses we need competing with each other. All that matters is that you do your job and you do it well. Thats all that matters.

 

[agent00f]

What if this is not true? Or, alternatively, significantly less true than you believe? If this is the prevailing attitude independent of reality, would it not become a self-fulfilling prophecy?

For instance, I have 2 brothers. Neither has a college degree. Both started employment in their current careers at an entry level. Both of them make more money than I do. I think this is because, while both recognized that their positions were "beneath them", they did not use that as a reason to ask for more. They instead realized that they were adding value with the work they were doing -- to the company, to the customer, and so they tried to do it well, and perhaps more importantly, they saw opportunity to help everyone do better. This, of course, led to promotion and for one to development of interpersonal connections to start his own business.

It's simply a matter of fact that opportunities are much fewer and further in between now than when even simple blue collar wages paid off the mortgage.

There is some data on immigrants that suggests they are 4 times more likely to become millionaires than people born here. These are often people coming with strange names, appearances which are appalling to much of America, not speaking our language, limited education, and products of a genuinely corrupt and overtly oppressive government. While these factors often lead to struggle, tragedy, mental illness, etc., they prove the existence of significant opportunity that is being squandered by people born here under better conditions, even if they are still not good conditions.

To further illustrate this fact, consider said success reflect that many immigrants are the best & brightest from places further along the competitive curve (ie more people fighting over fewer resources), and what that curve portends for this country's future.

And I say this not to insinuate that people are lazy and need to grow up and don't need help, aren't suffering, etc. Instead, I merely wish to point to the value systems we have here and my feelings on the underpinnings of their existence, because I think our active choices and conscious beliefs today will determine the chances of success in our next generation, and I fear we are trying to run faster to escape oppression without understanding that we are choosing to run in the direction of it instead.

Your basic point is that not everything is a zero sum game, but it takes generous faith in american exceptionalism to escape the historical fact that this is how civilizations mature. At some point all the low hanging fruit is gone and the problem turns to distributing what can be harvested.

 

[Yakk]

My cousin has a plumbing business. He can't get people to work. Most can't pass a drug test. The ones that can only want to work 2-3 days a week. Jobs are there. I really hate to say this but the illegals are simply filling a void. I hate that more than I can express.

Sent from my overpriced smartphone

Same goes for many kinds of professional office work. I don't hate it, just if somebody won't do it, somebody else will.

 

[LunarRay]

I am not clever enough to feel I exactly know what you are saying here. I don't know what the ambiguity is, nor do I get what is reversed or what contrariness my word impel, but I don't feel in any rush for anything. I am sorry however for my lack of comprehension. Probably I don't see the implications in what I say that are probably there.

Today I noticed this blind Vet at the VA hospital helping sighted folks to whatever place they needed to go... In fact, later on I saw him pushing another Vet who was in a wheel chair to their appointment location... Then I came upon this thread and it was like deja vu but then nobody always amazes me... so to speak.

 

[interchange]

Today I noticed this blind Vet at the VA hospital helping sighted folks to whatever place they needed to go... In fact, later on I saw him pushing another Vet who was in a wheel chair to their appointment location... Then I came upon this thread and it was like deja vu but then nobody always amazes me... so to speak.

Well at first I was having a hard time wondering which one of us was the blind vet. But I found it more interesting to imagine each if us in that role. That was not nearly as satisfying, though, then distancing myself from the assumption that the vet was routing people to the "correct" place.

 

[Moonbeam]

Well at first I was having a hard time wondering which one of us was the blind vet. But I found it more interesting to imagine each if us in that role. That was not nearly as satisfying, though, then distancing myself from the assumption that the vet was routing people to the "correct" place.

Well now isn't this just dandy for me....... My favorite VA vet and my favorite VA doctor have now met.

The finger pointing down the hall or at the moon is not the moon. It is not the nobody who points or the finger that matters. The notion that we hate ourselves is beyond belief. It is known if it is true only by experiencing it. I learned about it from a man who had it all, success, a super marriage, the best he knew of, and a family whose wife decided one day to divorce him, a phenomenon he could not understand and could not explain, a psychologist who set about to study everything he could read and who also had himself undergone more psychoanalysis with many of the best practitioners than anybody else he knew of, and somebody who also had his own practice.

One day, working with a young woman who he had been deeply depressed and come to life when she fell in love, in a session in which she was deep within her feelings, depressed again because she had broken up with her new lover, he asked her why she had broken off the relationship and she answered, 'He loves me the dope.' He began to wonder if this was also what his wife had felt. What he saw was that this girl had such low self esteem that she was certain that anybody who loved her had to be a fool, a person unfit, too blind, too stupid too naïve to be with her. And he asked if it could possibly be that he himself felt like that. He said that after many trips to isolated places in his car where he could safely allow himself to let go and dive deep, he discovered that it was exactly true of him, that he felt he was the worst person in the world, that he remembered how he got that way and that it was a lie. He experienced an alteration in his conscious state, a near certainty, he always said a 99.999% certainty that he was OK. He transcended this self hate he had no idea earlier that he had had. And he was like on other person I have ever met. I would, I think, have never noticed him were it not that I had already experienced a more superficial transformation.

Was he right that we all hate ourselves? Am I right that I agree we do? Have you ever experienced an altered state of consciousness say in a fever, maybe an out of body type of thing? One can remember that one was somewhere else, but one can't actually consciously relive that state. But when one enters it again perhaps with some new fever, one knows instantly that it is just what one experienced before. He who tastes knows, but only he who is tasting is living with the taste. One can't command the unconscious to give up its secrets voluntarily.

But what one can do, I think, is look at the evidence. What of life's great mysteries would be explained if people suffered from unconscious self hate? Why do we say things like 'Just my luck!' when bad things happen to us. Why do we sabotage relationships by creating impossible tests to them. Why do we fear success? Why are complements so hard to take? It should not be very hard to see what damage is caused for people with low self esteem. But what if we all suffer from that same thing. What could we explain looking at ourselves that way? If you can't feel it, you may at least begin to see it. That is what this blind man would like to try and point to.

 

[bshole]

But what one can do, I think, is look at the evidence. What of life's great mysteries would be explained if people suffered from unconscious self hate?

What mysteries? We exist for a miserable blip of time and then die horrible agonizing deaths. Then we are completely forgotten as if we never existed in the first place. I see no mystery in any of this. Just a little slice of hell that each of us must endure before oblivion. Evolution is a horrible thing when you think about it. All the suffering in the universe came about through it. Without it the universe would be pain free.

 

[LunarRay]

Well at first I was having a hard time wondering which one of us was the blind vet. But I found it more interesting to imagine each if us in that role. That was not nearly as satisfying, though, then distancing myself from the assumption that the vet was routing people to the "correct" place.

The "correct place" presumes a terminus for both the blind Vet and the helped folks when, as I see it, the start of the process is where the helped folks were being brought to.
What I find fascinating is the notion that most of us consider ourselves to be perfect us unblemished by what afflicts everyone else who are not like minded in most every observable way. In other words, "you are wrong because I don't agree with you and I am as right as it is possible to be". (not you personally but those here and most everywhere where folks disagree) Moonster uses a tactic to stimulate self evaluation but most often that hardens the reader to her condition but, every twice in awhile a let's look see me occurs and that must always be construed as a 'correct place to start'.
I don't know about you but I've read every word that the Moonster has written since well before I ever joined the forum and the responses he garners. Now if he could only play Diablo better he'd be perfect.... hehehehehehehe

 

[Mai72]

Got a friend whose living at home with momma in his 30s. Plays video games all day. Why? Because it's fun! Work sucks and video games are fun.

Have another friend who post on FB all day and night. I can't even go over to his home because he lets his 2 cats piss everywhere. He never cleans up their mess.

Many people allow comfort to destroy their lives. They have zero drive and hunger to do anything. It's the reason why Immigrants are able to land in America and become successful at a very quick pace. There is no competition.

 

[interchange]

The "correct place" presumes a terminus for both the blind Vet and the helped folks when, as I see it, the start of the process is where the helped folks were being brought to.
What I find fascinating is the notion that most of us consider ourselves to be perfect us unblemished by what afflicts everyone else who are not like minded in most every observable way. In other words, "you are wrong because I don't agree with you and I am as right as it is possible to be". (not you personally but those here and most everywhere where folks disagree) Moonster uses a tactic to stimulate self evaluation but most often that hardens the reader to her condition but, every twice in awhile a let's look see me occurs and that must always be construed as a 'correct place to start'.
I don't know about you but I've read every word that the Moonster has written since well before I ever joined the forum and the responses he garners. Now if he could only play Diablo better he'd be perfect.... hehehehehehehe

Well I wonder about the ability to derive gratification from his tactics here and not from Diablo, but honestly it's not my place to decide this is wrong, even if I have inklings about his character and its origins. This thread has helped me become increasingly aware of how this forum has served for me to act out communication which I restrict myself from in other relationships in life (my patients, my family, my analyst). That awareness does not absolve me of the wish to exercise such freedom elsewhere, nor does it suggest to me that my boundaries needed loosening, but I suspect you would call here a "correct place to start."

 

[bshole]

Got a friend whose living at home with momma in his 30s. Plays video games all day. Why? Because it's fun! Work sucks and video games are fun.

Have another friend who post on FB all day and night. I can't even go over to his home because he lets his 2 cats piss everywhere. He never cleans up their mess.

Many people allow comfort to destroy their lives. They have zero drive and hunger to do anything. It's the reason why Immigrants are able to land in America and become successful at a very quick pace. There is no competition.

If they are doing exactly what they want to do and it makes them happy, how is their life destroyed? The ultimate goal in life is to be happy (without regard to productivity).

 

[interchange]

But what one can do, I think, is look at the evidence. What of life's great mysteries would be explained if people suffered from unconscious self hate? Why do we say things like 'Just my luck!' when bad things happen to us. Why do we sabotage relationships by creating impossible tests to them. Why do we fear success? Why are complements so hard to take? It should not be very hard to see what damage is caused for people with low self esteem. But what if we all suffer from that same thing. What could we explain looking at ourselves that way? If you can't feel it, you may at least begin to see it. That is what this blind man would like to try and point to.

It seems as though you are making an argument for psychoanalysis. Not perhaps the setting in which it is done nor the theory on which it is derived, but rather for the intents and attitude toward the analysand. Certainly analysis frequently struggles to establish and maintain such a working task. I cannot consider this an invalidation as it is also often successful. If better can be done elsewhere, I do not know it. But it is no coincidence to me how frequently psychoanalytic exploration arrives at an analogous location as many Eastern religions if only one strips away the language used to describe it.

And I do not agree with the conclusions you have drawn at this point. I have speculations on the reasons for those differences, but since I have engaged in such a work as you suggest, I think I'll merely continue it and see if we arrive at the same location again.

 

[interchange]

The ultimate goal in life is to be happy (without regard to productivity).

I suspect if you objectively record your own behaviors for even an hour you will find very little to support your statement. And, hell, it might even be true.

Except all of this fails to incorporate that the ultimate function of our mind is to ensure stability of the self. And that idea of self is derived from our experiences going back to infanthood where none of the knowledge or abstraction capacity or impulse control of the adult is present.

And so it becomes no surprise that someone whose infantile needs were misunderstood, discredited, punished, or otherwise neglected found ways to meet those needs which might be discouraged, and that they continue to be trapped in these patterns as adults despite the dysfunction that results.

Whether it is someone who violates others to meet their needs because they were shown that needs could not be met without doing so, someone who presents dramatic and provocative representations of their wishes to forgive others for rejecting them because it would be too damaging to learn that a genuine representation of their wishes was childish as they learned so often when last they represented themselves genuinely, the person who must structure their life precisely so because feeling differently about something from moment to moment was not allowed, or even the once-admired physician who takes pride in working 80 hours a week for the good of the patient (even though that is definitely not good for the patient) because the needs of their infant/child self could not be validated or met except when they could demonstrate that they were sufficiently suffering to warrant the attention -- we are all products of the same developmental processes.

And our deep memories of the trauma we received by deviating from these patterns has conditioned us to repeat the same behaviors we learned to escape them -- even when they preclude our ability to pursue happiness -- even when they confer upon us clear pain -- and especially even though it is unlikely that such conditions as which produced these patterns even exists in our lives today, or at a minimum even if they do, that we have not learned some other solutions to tolerate that distress since that wouldn't be so damaging to employ. Yet to test this challenges our own image of who we are. And since we are born without the ability to distinguish ourselves from our environment, it challenges our entire image of the world around us.

What good is happiness if it is packaged with nothingness?

 

[Svnla]

If they are doing exactly what they want to do and it makes them happy, how is their life destroyed? The ultimate goal in life is to be happy (without regard to productivity).

Are you serious?

Exhibit 1 (US is not alone in this case) - http://time.com/3998563/virtual-love-japan/

and http://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-24614830

Akihabara is heaven for otaku.

They are a generation of geeks who have grown up through 20 years of economic stagnation and have chosen to tune out and immerse themselves in their own fantasy worlds.

Kunio Kitamura, of the Japan Family Planning Association, describes many young Japanese men as "herbivores" - passive and lacking carnal desire.

It seems they no longer have the ambition of the post-war alpha males who made Japan such an economic powerhouse and no interest in joining a company and becoming a salary man.

They have taken on a mole-like existence and, worryingly, withdrawn from relationships with the opposite sex.

A survey by the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare in 2010 found 36% of Japanese males aged 16 to 19 had no interest in sex - a figure that had doubled in the space of two years.

Is that healthy and normal? If more and more young guys are like that, how could a nation be able to continue to prosper and grow?

 

[bshole]

What good is happiness if it is packaged with nothingness?

It is everything. I am considered EXTREMELY productive by many people I have worked for (as evidenced by my pay and job reviews).

I am also EXTREMELY unhappy. For me to be happy and useless is FAR more preferable than being useful and unhappy.

A life of misery is without a doubt a wasted life.

 

[justoh]

lol. getting a job. in 2016. elegiggle. like, are you seriously? kappa

 

[Naer]

Are you serious?

Exhibit 1 (US is not alone in this case) - http://time.com/3998563/virtual-love-japan/

and http://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-24614830




Is that healthy and normal? If more and more young guys are like that, how could a nation be able to continue to prosper and grow?

slow down the growth pls. infinite growth on a finite planet will lead to ecological and ultimately global suicide

 

[bshole]

slow down the growth pls. infinite growth on a finite planet will lead to ecological and ultimately global suicide

This is why you should get down on your knees and thank God that Eve took a bite of the forbidden fruit. If she hadn't, there would be a layer of humans all around the world about a mile deep. Could you imagine being at the bottom of that layer and not being able to die ever?

 

[Svnla]

slow down the growth pls. infinite growth on a finite planet will lead to ecological and ultimately global suicide

I am not talking about families with multiple kids. Japan is LOSING population. It does not even have enough babies to replace the population and immigration is very strict.

 

[Moonbeam]

What mysteries? We exist for a miserable blip of time and then die horrible agonizing deaths. Then we are completely forgotten as if we never existed in the first place. I see no mystery in any of this. Just a little slice of hell that each of us must endure before oblivion. Evolution is a horrible thing when you think about it. All the suffering in the universe came about through it. Without it the universe would be pain free.

What about the mystery of how many polyps are in your colon. Your reference point from which you view the world should help you solve that one.

But seriously, I want to thank you for your optimistic view of life. The real world I live in makes the one you spell out look like Wonderland, such simple problems like being completely forgotten as if I never existed are a real issue for a nobody like me. I spend half my nights laying awake trembling about that. And pain, Jesus, sometimes when I've been playing Diablo for a long time I get so insanely angry having been blown to bits by another exploding boss that I press on the keys so hard my fingers ache and I have to quit playing. Life is a fucking bitch and especially for me because I killed God and now he's really pissed at me. But I had to kill Him because he made me feel so fucking worthless sending that egoless asshole son of His to set an example I could never live up to. You think you have troubles. Those two bastards are on my ass every minute of the day. You should try having your liver pecked by vultures and while you roll a stone up a mountain slope 24/7,; life is really hell, I tell you.

And on top of that I've got a sink full of dishes and haven't had my coffee.

The problem, of course isn't evolution exactly, but self awareness, knowing we will die. But imagine for a moment there is a state of awareness that collapses self and makes you go away as if you do not exist, no not that exactly, but that what you are is love that fills the universe, the ALL and EVERYTHING. What if time stops when thought ends and one is so here in the now that all there is is immortality. Something like that, well, that might be better than having your nob polished by an angle.

You talk about the meaningless of existence but I was swallowed by it. When I let go and surrendered, gave up sincerely and completely, Grace lifted her veil and permitted me one brief glimpse of the her face, one brief glimpse of what some may experience permanently but which, nevertheless, has sufficed for a lifetime and for which I am very grateful. I hope your caravan of riches also arrives.

The world may change but the big change comes with a change of attitude, hell to heaven in a single instant, a mystery you might wish to ponder.