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

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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 feel the same (I think) - fairly content, but not participating. So, I've tried to fill it up with a made up goal of mine. It's interesting, cos so far it's given my life a lot more meaning. I've enjoyed studying accounting more than anything else. But ahem, enough about me. I think life has no meaning, so you have to make up your own. It feels like I'm an observer, trying to just get along and do my bit. I don't know if I'll ever feel a part of "life", and have many friends. Even if I did have many friends, I would probably feel just as detached, if not more so. I have friends, but I've never been partying, or travelled, and wonder if I'm missing out.

I travel and do so frequently but I still feel quite alone and very aloof.

According to Google Translate:

"Una Bella Vita" == "A Good Life"

"La Bella Vita" == "The Good Life"

However...

"The Beautiful Life" == "La Bella Vita"

The first one was definitely the translation I was looking for. There is also "la dolce vita" too.

It makes your life more interesting though, doesn't it? It must add some meaning. Do you talk to any locals in the places you visit?

Sometimes, although my mum does most of the talking and initiation of conversations although occasionally I specifically choose to meet up with people in the places I visit beforehand. I very rarely talk to other people unless I'm either drunk or have something interesting to say.

I've been to Canada (but only Southern Ontario); Cyprus (including the self-proclaimed "Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus"); Czech Republic; Denmark; Estonia; Finland (though only briefly); Gibraltar; Isle of Man; Ireland; Malta; Poland; Portugal (the Algarve area and the island Madeira); Spain (the region of Andalucia and the Canary Islands of Fuerteventura, Lanzarote and Tenerife); Sweden (twice, though only briefly both times) and of course the UK (England; Wales and Northern Ireland).

Yeh, you also gave me a list in a PM once. I don't have anyone to travel with, and I really wouldn't want to do it on my own. I've hardly been anywhere, and I couldn't go with my mum - she's afraid of flying. I'd have to find someone who was very, very tolerant to travel with me. I did once, and he lived in Preston.

Perhaps we should meet up. Oh, and I emphatically do not live in Preston and I try not to be associated with that rabble too much.

No, I live in a nice peaceful town not far from it.

I get a sense that some of your rebellion and acting out is a kind of frustration, and not necessarily with us.

Congratulations for making it to the realisation that perhaps you need something more from life. A lot of people ignore that bug.

Part of the challenge is in working out what the challenge is.

I think it means doing what your soul's purpose is (and you can take that metaphorically or not)

If you know your time, date and place of birth, I can look at what your chart says.

In the meantime, here's some text and a picture of a pyramid

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maslow%27s ... y_of_needs

But you don't want to come to London! I'd only travel up there if I was going to meet more than one person.

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. Maybe I could introduce you to a few other Londoner aspies too.

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

Yes, which is why the increasing number, range and obnoxiousness of little health problems and reductions in physical function of the last year or two are beginning to have quite an impact ... because I have a tendency to avoid doing anything, or dislike doing things, which seem more effort than they are worth ... and aging is making life more of an effort right now ... though I suppose there have been periods before now when other things have made living just as difficult if not more so ... ... ... which I was about to say suggests that it's perhaps not the *level* of difficulty which matters so much as the nature of it ... except that I was often depressed at those times ... . ...

But ... maybe it is something to do with the nature of the difficulties that aging introduces ... they are ubiquitous, banal, everyday, drearily physical ... whereas abortion, alcoholism, manic-depression/bipolar disorder, homelessness, confused sexuality, frequent moves, being penniless in a foreign country, being on the autism spectrum, etc are sort of "fun"/interesting. :lol

A "good life" though: I have no idea what it is ... Sometimes ( usually, mostly, when have been gluten-free for a while, but also at other unpredictable moments ), it seems to have nothing to do with external measurable concrete objective things, and to be a state of mind, and sometimes, often, it seems to be precisely the life/lives I'm not leading, as if I "couldn't possibly" have access to it, or as if the life that I am leading couldn't possibly be it ... and yet at another moment it is exactly the same one, mine, which seems perfect in every respect. Very bizarre.
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"La bella vita" as intended in Italian is pretty much enjoying anything mundane in first person. It is basically the contrary of living meaningfully or be driven by objectives (putting food on the table while in financial distress included), and doesn't necessarily mean having a good life. It is just life lived for the purpose of feeling good - so all you think about is partying, relaxing (for example going on vacation to the beach, but not backpacking, for instance), leisure, and so on. That can make you pretty empty after a while.