life – The Burning Platform

QUOTES OF THE DAY

“Advertising has us chasing cars and clothes, working jobs we hate so we can buy shit we don’t need.”

Chuck Palahniuk, Fight Club

“Only after disaster can we be resurrected. It’s only after you’ve lost everything that you’re free to do anything. Nothing is static, everything is evolving, everything is falling apart.”

Chuck Palahniuk, Fight Club

“There are times when the entire arrangement of our existence is disrupted and we long then for just one ordinary day— seeing our ordinary life as greatly desirable, even wonderful, in the light of the terrible disruption that has taken place. Difficulty opens our eyes to pleasures we had taken for granted.”

Elisabeth Elliot

QUOTES OF THE DAY

“To find the universal elements enough; to find the air and the water exhilarating; to be refreshed by a morning walk or an evening saunter… to be thrilled by the stars at night; to be elated over a bird’s nest or a wildflower in spring — these are some of the rewards of the simple life.”

John Burroughs, Leaf and Tendril

“Sleep, the innocent sleep. Sleep that knits up the raveled sleeve of care, The death of each day’s life, sore labour’s bath, balm of hurt minds, great nature’s second course, chief nourisher in life’s feast.”

William Shakespeare

Choose Love: Don’t Ever Let Fear Turn You Against Your Playful Heart

By Doug “Uncola” Lynn via TheBurningPlatform.com

The words in the title of this piece are not my own. Believe it or not, these are the words of actor and comedian, Jim Carrey, from the end of the video below. It inspired this essay.

Quite often, I find myself considering what is called the ripples-in-the-pond effect. Like throwing a rock into a smooth body of water, the action (throwing the rock) creates a splash (consequence) that in turn releases ensuing vibrations (reactions) that ripple across the allegorical pond; which, I believe represents the fabric of space-time. By this definition there are many variables that are enjoyable to think about. The size of the rock or the number of throws, or actions, involved. For every splash, there are consequences; for good, or bad.

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STOP THE RIDE, I WANT TO GET OFF

By D.C. Sunsets

Where have I been? Tilting at windmills.

I’ve simply realized that no matter how much I refine my grasp of today’s collective insanity (its roots, its enablers, the underlying engine that powers it, and where it leads),

1. No one gives a shit.

2. Neither I nor anyone else can change it.

3. Without details (timing, specifics) neither I nor anyone else has, preparing for what’s coming is for all practical purposes impossible. Every preparation A produces massive costs Anti-A today, and the accumulation of those costs is beginning to crush me.

I’m arrogant enough to believe that I see something that almost no one else sees. I’m also wise enough to know that it just doesn’t matter. No bozo buttons are awarded for being first to fully elucidate a process, and 21 years of being wrong on the timing has taught me that there are actually no benefits even to myself. So far, my insights on this crap have only cost me money, heartache and self-recrimination.

So I try to stop wasting my time typing comments. I’m better off putting in a load of laundry, mowing the grass or reloading some more cartridges.

At this moment, I’m running a video-capture of the VHS recording of my wedding in the background of this web browser. It reminds me in a constant bitch-slap of how much time has passed, how youth drains away no matter how hard one tries to slow it, how nothing I do really affects more than that moment of time, and how I’ve lived my life in a fog of ignorance so profound that it’s embarrassing to even contemplate.

I’m an ant, riding on a leaf, floating down a large river. I can’t change the course of the river, I’m surrounded by other ants who have no notion of the river itself, and who grasp not the meaning of the sound of a waterfall ahead. Or if they do, then ours is a dialog that only goes in circles. I’ve been spinning in those circles since 1993. I’m dizzy, so please stop the ride, I want to get off.

7 Harsh Realities Of Life Millennials Need To Understand

Via The Libertarian Republic

Millennials.

They may not yet be the present, but they’re certainly the future. These young, uninitiated minds will someday soon become our politicians, doctors, scientists, chefs, television producers, fashion designers, manufacturers, and, one would hope, the new proponents of liberty. But are they ready for it?

Time after time, particularly on college campuses, millennials have proven to be little more than entitled, spoiled, anti-intellectual brats who place far too much emphasis on feelings and nowhere near enough emphasis on critical thinking. To the millennial, words are cause for the creation of safe spaces, alternative ideas must be stifled, and anything they perceive to be a microaggression is enough to send them spiraling into a state of mental distress.

It’s time millennials understood these 7 harsh realities of life so we don’t end up with a generation of gutless adult babies running the show.

1. Your Feelings Are Largely Irrelevant

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Seriously, nobody who has already graduated college cares about your feelings. That means that when you complain to your boss because your co-worker mis-gendered you, he’s probably not going to bend over backwards to bandage your wounds. Given feelings are entirely subjective in nature, it’s completely unreasonable to demand everyone tip-toe around you to prevent yours from being hurt. The reality is that people will offend you and hurt your feelings, and they won’t stop to mop up your tears because they shouldn’t have to. Learning to accept criticism, alternative viewpoints, and even outright insults will make you happier in the long run than routinely playing the victim card.

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A Young Man Was Supposed To Be Married Today. Instead, He Will Be Buried.

In October 2007, Solomon Chau celebrated his 19^th birthday in Ontario with friends. It was by pure chance that Jenn was visiting a friend, and that she wound up at Solomon’s party. Jenn would catch Sol’s eye … and two months later Sol took a more-than-three-hour bus ride around Lake Ontario during a snowstorm in December just to show up at her door and ask her out.

By spring of 2014, Sol organized a flash mob in the plaza beneath Toronto’s CN Tower and proposed to Jenn. Of course, she accepted.

The wedding was scheduled for TODAY — August 22, 2015. Instead, today is his funeral.

You see, in December 2014, Sol was diagnosed with liver cancer. Within 48 frantic hours, he was rushed into surgery. The doctors were able to remove the tumor which was poisoning his liver. By New Year’s Day, it seemed that everything was all right.

Except that it wasn’t. In March 2015 the cancer returned. Sol and Jenn were told that the ending was inevitable.

The story doesn’t end quite yet.

The city of Toronto rallied together behind the couple and surprised them with an unforgettable wedding on April 11, 2015. In just three days more than $50,000 was raised on GoFundMe to throw Sol and Jenn a lavish wedding. Expensive wedding vendors such as Boundless Wedding Videos (the video below), Red Earth Photography, and Liberty Entertainment Group volunteered their services free of charge.

Sol and Jenn look so happy. But, I wonder what it must feel like … to marry the love of your life, while knowing you’ll be dead a few months later. The wedding party and guests were in high spirits. Sometimes, even in the face of tragedy, it is the only thing one can be.

Today, Jenn is burying her husband of 128 days. Sometimes, life just isn’t fair.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=fUosjLn_AQg

LET YOUR LIFE BE THE BEGINNING OF THE REVOLUTION

Guest Post by Hardscrabble Farmer

Spent my entire Sunday moving big bales for the cattle this winter. Spent all of last week putting a new steel roof on a 100′ long barn. Gardened, read books, kept date night with my wife on Saturday night in our kitchen, shelled enough peas to last through till next year, sold some piglets, helped some local millennials with their new farm stand venture, cleaned totes, scraped and repainted the front of the milk house, cut hay with scythe for the chickens for winter, slaughtered and processed 100 meat birds for the freezer, made coffee from the beans our family sent from Hawaii, repaired a piece of equipment, york raked a neighbor’s driveway, weeded, planted second crop of greens, slept. My total work hours last week (if you include shelling peas on the bed @10pm work) was just over 75. My body is stiff when I wake up, my arms are sore most of the time I’m not moving but I can say the following-

We spent $0 on healthcare. We spent $0 on electricity. We spent $0 on groceries- that’s a lie, my wife bought Italian ices for us yesterday as a treat, I think she took $6 out of my wallet. All week I enjoyed myself, improved our homestead, had a great date with my wife that lasted until we went to bed, spoke with old friends on the phone Sunday evening, helped neighbors and acquaintances locally, fed ourselves delicious meals, provided for our Winter, earned enough off farm doing something I enjoy to pay six months worth of property taxes, composted waste, put up animal fodder, repaired our own property and belongings, built soils and created an environment where one of our customers who was leaving the state for good had to stop by and see it “one more time so I never forget”.

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