Board index › Age/Gender related discussions › In-Depth Adult Life Discussion

What does it mean to live "una bella vita"?

Page 2 of 2 [ 22 posts ]  Go to page Previous  1, 2

Previous topic | Next topic

BuyerBeware
Veteran
Veteran

User avatar

Joined: 28 Sep 2011
Gender: Female
Posts: 3,476
Location: PA, USA

02 Dec 2011, 7:59 pm

"The good life."

It's...

...whatever the hell you think it is.

According to the Travel Channel, it has something to do with a seaside mansion in Central America, a really expensive yacht, and a bunch of people waiting on your every whim.

Sounds stressful to me.

According to Helen and Scott Nearing, it has something to do with a vegetarian diet, ultra-left politics, a hand-built house, and days filled with hard physical labor.

Sounds... liberal to me.

According to me, it has something to do with having a couple people who care if I live or die, a handful of intelligent people to talk to, and other than that, to be left the hell alone. A hand-built house and days filled with hard physical labor probably wouldn't hurt, either.

Point being, my idea of the good life is probably some other Aspie's idea of Hell.


_________________
"Alas, our dried voices when we whisper together are quiet and meaningless, as wind in dry grass, or rats' feet over broken glass in our dry cellar." --TS Eliot, "The Hollow Men"


smudge
Veteran
Veteran

User avatar

Joined: 6 Sep 2006
Age: 37
Gender: Female
Posts: 7,716
Location: Moved on

03 Dec 2011, 9:51 am

Tequila wrote:
smudge wrote:
Tequila wrote:
I might come down to London for a short break in the next couple of months. It's all very early days yet though.


That would be nice.


If I come it would only be for a few days en route to Hong Kong.


Sure, why not?

Who have you met from here IRL?



Tequila
Veteran
Veteran

Joined: 25 Feb 2006
Age: 36
Gender: Male
Posts: 28,897
Location: Lancashire, UK

03 Dec 2011, 3:54 pm

smudge wrote:
Who have you met from here IRL?


Only one member here who is still posting: bucephalus (aka Chris). :)



HopefulRomantic
Deinonychus
Deinonychus

User avatar

Joined: 11 Aug 2010
Age: 60
Gender: Female
Posts: 399
Location: Atlanta, GA

04 Dec 2011, 8:45 am

Tequila wrote:
I've been thinking about this quite a lot recently. I'm wondering what a good life actually is besides having the basics not suffering from the violence (or threat of violence) and of being loved and having food in your belly. Is there anything I'm missing? I see people talking about celebrities and sex lives and all the rest of it, and famous and talented people doing big things and all this seems to pass me and many others by. I don't get it. I see people with lots of friends - not that I really want any - and I wonder if they're having a good life or not. People with slim bodies, attractive people, and so on. So I think about all this sometimes absent-mindedly.

Does anyone else seem to be floating through life, relatively content, but not knowing what a good life is? That one isn't seriously depressed but feels there is something missing perhaps?



I think the "good life" is a purely personal, subjective thing depending on the individual's preferences and personality.



Tequila
Veteran
Veteran

Joined: 25 Feb 2006
Age: 36
Gender: Male
Posts: 28,897
Location: Lancashire, UK

04 Dec 2011, 8:48 am

I get the fact that "the good life" is subjective and changes from person to person but what is "a good life"?



faerie_queene87
Snowy Owl
Snowy Owl

User avatar

Joined: 27 Sep 2011
Age: 37
Gender: Female
Posts: 162
Location: the TARDIS

04 Dec 2011, 10:34 am

Tequila wrote:
I get the fact that "the good life" is subjective and changes from person to person but what is "a good life"?


I guess (reading back your first post) it's just living in a way that fits your preferences and you wouldn't like to change. Like looking in the "mirror of Erised" and just seeing yourself. You can "be content and missing out" if you give up what you want to do, for something else that keeps you going. Having food, a roof, and the feeling of being loved actually sound pretty much like a good life to me, but many people just want something more, or something else.

If you are totally indifferent regarding grandiosity or popularity and so on, it means that you aren't missing it. You don't have to compare yourself to others to see whether a life is good or not - social conventions tend to dictate the definition of a good life but that's just plain wrong. I also used to think "oh that person must be miserable, with the life he's living" but then I realized that it was just not corresponding to my definition of "good life". To be honest, right now I wouldn't be able to tell if a person were happy or not with his life unless talking thoroughly about it together.


_________________
At age 24, 4 months and 10 days I was officially told: "Congratulations! You are an Aspie".
Now I write about it --> http://happilyclueless.me