Do Thoughts and Ideas, and emotions

[MoseyWalker]

really matter in the long run? Whether personally, politically or in any other context?

Does what we produce, and what we may destroy intentionally, or unintentionally, over time really matter?

Is all our concern worth all the effort?

(just asking)

[ret5hd]

1. Over what timeframe?

Millions of years? Then probably not.

[MoseyWalker]

2. a century or so

millions of years? I may have to ask the dinosaurs what they think!

[stillcool]

3. all the world's a stage...

my big picture view says that everything I 'sense' about the world out there, is seen uniquely by me and for me. It's all about the ride...the scene from the river of life...one moment it's angry, running fast churning up it's soul...the next it's deliciously cool and soothing...but always moving...twisting and turning. Sometimes I have to hang on, sometimes I let go and let it ride...but...it's never the same, and whatever I look for I generally find.

[lumberjack_jeff]

4. Yes. Over any timeframe. n/t

[Rex]

5. You're born to die from the moment you leave the womb.

A true human paradox. The rich, the poor all one day food for the worms. In a thousand year will we even be here as a species? 10,000 years? I think what matters is now. Living, growing, learning, teaching, aging, dying. A process as natural as trees and grass growing and dying. We just happen to be sentient and curious. I think that is what keeps us creative and always evolving. What does worth mean to time? Effort?

[MoseyWalker]

6. absolutely beautiful responses so far

everyone.

thank you!

[AnotherDreamWeaver]

7. With out a Doubt. (you having a bad day?)

Good books have motivated many with their Thoughts, Ideas and Emotions. Just story telling has helped in the evolution of our Humanity (what there is of it).

(My partner just came up to use the computer. I read the OP and asked him how he felt about it. His reply was he was waiting for 2012, the supposed end of the Mayan and Egyptian Pyramid calendars. Just another bad day. We both have colds.)

I have been to old Mayan and Incan sites and wondered what their civilizations offered humanity and why there were not more "present" while I was there. I wondered what might be the "downfall" of my own 'civilization". But I believe we must work for the things we believe in to make things in life valuable.

Today I worked to fix the pig pen to keep them out of the goat pen and ripping up their pasture.
adw

[MoseyWalker]

8. just a thought, but

you need to post more!

[AnotherDreamWeaver]

13. Thanks Mosey

I jump in when the spirit moves me... Maybe it will start moving me a little more.
adw

[walldude]

9. The Butterfly Effect....

does a butterfly flapping it's wings in the Amazon have an effect on the weather in Tuscon? When I walk out my door tommorow will my future depend of whether I turn right or left? Does it depend on how I feel that day and how I interact with other people? If I'm feeling generous and I give a panhandler 5 bucks will it save that person from starving? What you do and how you feel matters. Not just to you but to the people you come in contact with, the people they come in contact with, and so on...

[snot]

10. I think that's up to us --

I believe we can make the world better, and that we have nothing better to do. I mean that in both the best and worst ways.

And I think those who undertake that task are in some way happier than those who don't.

[Az]

11. There is no meaning to life other than what we make of it

When you have passed nothing will matter to you anymore. But the effects of your life will continue to go on throughout the system of human life for sometime after that. Whether that matters to you or not is only for you to say.

The universe is not going to hand you a purpose. It is not going to give you a score. You have to determine your own purpose and evaluate your life on your own criteria.

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

12. As the Zennists say, "Chop wood, carry water."

Hell, we can't even "prove" that we exist. Whatever life is, or isn't, even if it's all an illusion, it's what we're stuck with. Just live.

[omega minimo]

14. what do you think?

[vixengrl]

15. Matters to me--

Well, my thoughts, my ideas, my emotions, naturally, matter to me--but here is what I've decided:

Ultimately, all of us meet our Judgement Day, not some big Rapture/Revelations business or Day of Judgement like any of the people of the Literal Book (tm) may imagine in the far off future--or tomorrow--but in some not-predicted, happenstance, whenever fashion. At that moment, whenever that moment may be, if your life does flash before your eyes like they say--it's just you and your truth--what did you believe, and how did you practice it? Did you do right or wrong? Were you honest? Who did you cheat or lie to or harm? Or happily, can you say you never did?

Well there it is, really--did you live, believe, act, as you thought you ought? Because you damn or bless yourself really, by your own lights. And the people you either helped or hurt along the way--you remember. They stay with you. So it's worth it, to the being of conscience, who thinks and feels. To live with oneself, or to die with one's action's upon one's heart--weighing it down. To be who you thought you should--to not betray yourself.

[The Straight Story]

16. Sure as hell does

I brought 5 kids into this world. And all of them could matter someday - and our thoughts, ideas, and emotions rub off on them. And they are the future law makers and peace makers of the world.

Don't make me write a long post on this ;)

[BlooInBloo]

17. Shorter Rorty: What the hell does the word "really" even mean, in this context?

... Coulda been Nietzsche as well, I suppose.

[Lex]

18. Yes, all of those things push civilization forward.

[bridgit]

19. there is a proper way to walk a given path, Buddhists bless the bottoms...

of their feet for their having been a part of any early, unbeknownest dispatch of even bug, or insect life;
so your answer is at least to my mind: yes, it matters...emotions perhaps less so

[Tsiyu]

20. Good question

Whether or not to get out of bed in the morning...hmmmmmmm


I look at it this way: I have received so much enjoyment from the thoughts and works of the past. The British Museum, the Rijksmuseum and the Victoria and Albert Museum are just a few I've visited where the ideas and handiwork of men and women inspired and awed and amused me.

No doubt, the Iroquois dude fashioning his arrowhead a few hundred years ago might have asked himself the same question. Today, we see his work at the Museum of Natural History in New York and we feel closer to him and maybe understand his world a bit more. His work outlived him to bring a lesson to future generations.

So the things we do today may or may not matter in the future, but we have no way of knowing how long that future is. So we should try to say and do and make things that matter, just in case. I mean, who knows who might be searching through your hard drive one hundred years from now? They may find some little ditty you typed and it might change their whole perspective on who and what you are and what life was like while you were alive.

And maybe, just maybe, humans will start to learn from the past and from each other. That won't happen if we do nothing, right?