The Leap (Full Version)

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cjan -> The Leap (1/7/2010 4:18:14 PM)

A coupla new threads have brought this to mind. In particular, GM's thread on pussy power, of all things.

I'm talking about The Leap. Not the "leap of faith", which has always seemed to me to be a leap to safety and security, made out of fear. But the leap to doubt, to the unkown, into the abyss.

It seems to me to be a life changing event, prescious. Seems to me, many of you must know what I'm talking about.

If you care to share how this happened for , please share it here. We can have some good wine and share an intimate moment here in the hot tub.



thornhappy -> RE: The Leap (1/7/2010 4:46:05 PM)

* sneaks into hot tub without a story *

Hey! It's bloody cold here and it be snowing!



cjan -> RE: The Leap (1/7/2010 5:17:46 PM)

S'ok, thorny. No story needed. I know it's a tuff topic, so I'll go first.

*pours thorny some wine and settles down into the delicious hot tub*

I was in my early twenties, pretty " well educated" and drug addled. First long trip to Europe. Two hundred dollars in my pocket.

After a coupla months, I found myself in the Canary Islands. Alone, onna cliff , sleeping bag around me and contemplating. I realized that everything I had been taught was bullshit. I suppose I always new that, but, at that moment, I realized that there was no "truth", outside of what I experienced for myself.

I had a double major in psychology and philosophy. Ouch, it hurt my head. All bullshit.

So, I determined , at that moment, to live life on it's own terms. It's been a long trip. But, I wouldn't exchange it for anything, certainly not for a "leap of faith".

The abbys isn't so scary, after all.

Hey, now can you make some bubbles inna hot tub?



Ashcroft -> RE: The Leap (1/7/2010 8:07:51 PM)

ok, I kinda have to say, at risk of downgrading my own level of intelligence, that I'm not 100% certain what exactly it is you're asking with this question about the Leap.

Is it just matter of living your life for yourself or the moment of realization when things that seem important are honestly less important than you'd thought? That moment of understanding that you can step out of the cookie cutter societal mold you've been expected to fill all your life as a sensible, successful, contributing member of society, in as such as society defines it?



cjan -> RE: The Leap (1/7/2010 8:26:38 PM)

Kinda. If you've been there, you know what I'm talking about.



Ashcroft -> RE: The Leap (1/7/2010 8:43:45 PM)

i believe i've got a few ideas of what you're talking about. I can't say many of them had the impact on me that you seem to be looking for.

The biggest would be probably my wife kicking me out and telling me she wants a divorce. It's been 7 months since then and we're still not divorced, no papers have been filed or anything of the sort but I'm becoming more and more certain that's what I need to do. There are kids involved though and that's what makes it difficult. No the thing, specifcally that gave me a bit of a wakeup call was a book. A book my sister-in-law had me read called 'Being Happy'

Sounds silly but the basic premise is people are unhappy because they choose to be unhappy. Right now I'm unemployed, been laid off for nearly a year from my last job due to downsizing. Living with my brother and his girlfriend, I barely get to see my 1-year-old daughter, my wife is weeks if not days away from giving birth to our son and the concept of divorce still looms heavily over my head.

But I'm not unhappy.

Go figure.



Arpig -> RE: The Leap (1/7/2010 8:49:19 PM)

I too am not exactly certain what you are asking, but i will give it a shot. I made a conscious decision to live on my own terms, to do what I saw as the right thing and bugger the consequences so long ago I honestly cannot remember exactly when, sometime back in 67 or 68 when I was 8 or 9 watching the B52s fly over on their way to bomb Hanoi (yeah I was a weird kid, did a LOT of thinking about things kids aren't supposed to think about). How has it worked out? Well to be honest its been pretty disastrous over the long term, but I have a certain satisfaction in knowing I have lived by my rules, not society's. I determine what is and what isn't important in my life...sometimes I have been wrong, but not usually. 



cjan -> RE: The Leap (1/8/2010 7:37:22 AM)

Sorry for being so vague in my question. It's kinda hard for me to articulate.

I was chatting with a friend a few days ago. She has been asigned a paper to write regarding "mystical" experiences as they may, or may not, relate to those experiences which may be called "dark nights of the soul".

I've experienced a few of my own in my lifetime, and am curious as to other peoples experience. I think that , in those moments, we make critical choices which affect the rest of our lives. One example being, as I say in the op, a leap to "faith",ie., religion or some ideology that one takes comfort in, the other choice being a leap into the unkown, no safety net, just a willingness to experience life and things as they are.

I am curious about other peeps experiences in this matter.



Arpig -> RE: The Leap (1/8/2010 9:30:10 AM)

A "leap of faith" actually has nothing to do with religion...it means to take an action with nothing more than your belief it will succeed...in other words pretty much what it seems you are driving at and thus your repeated stating that you do not mean a "leap of faith" and then describing just that might be the source of our confusion.



LillyoftheVally -> RE: The Leap (1/8/2010 9:41:57 AM)

I have revelations and realizations all the time, I suddenly get hit with the thought that life isn't as serious as I take it that maybe over thinking who I am/what I am/ who other people are/ what the world is etc etc prevents me from actually getting on and living life. I have these moments when I say to myself, right thats it I won't do it any more. One when my house caught on fire, one when my parents separated, one when I moved house and a million others. The problem is this conscious decision doesn't last and I have started to think that maybe rather than telling myself I need to change to be like everyone else, that I need to enjoy myself in the way that other people do I need to actually just accept that I do like to be alone, that I don't like hanging out in pubs with people my age, that I am difficult to be around, that I am argumentative and stubborn and that I question everything. I will have my fleeting obsessions, I will have my epiphanies but that at the end of it all I will actually stay being me, and that aint as bad a thing as I keep telling myself it is.



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