Random Thoughts on the Meaning of Life
And Some Meaningless Thought Provoking Observations
Lex Loeb Contributor Network
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Today I was going though a friend's library of books trying to figure out if she is or had become what she read and she certainly read a lot. I reached an the I don't know conclusion. How could I possibly know without asking her what she thinks? A pile of books stacked against the wall from floor to ceiling can tell you absolutely nothing. For that matter a library full of books can be just as meaningless. Books take readers to interpret each one separately. Is a non fiction book more meaningful than a fictional novel? Non fiction is not supposed to be an interpretation as much as it should be a statement of facts. Facts are meaningful? True stories recorded as fact are necessarily vested with meaning? In meaning necessarily an understanding of the author's own interpretation of his work? If that is the case does it matter? A book about the Chinese cultural revolution is not about meaning anything other than that story being told and maybe filtered though the author's perspective on the subject. Non fiction is supposed to be about conveying meaning more than fiction does yet it is always open to interpretation and with in separate con textural readings.
Book reading is supposed to convey meaning. Maybe it does but not in any absolute manner. What does the color Red mean verse the color blue? It all depends on what an observer of each color is likely to be thinking during a specific period of time.
Deciphering real meaning outside of the real of books: Using observation to find real meaning...
Here is the story. Today I was walking along a street in Portland , Oregon and noticed an old white haired guy picking though the public sidewalk garbage cans. I asked him if he wanted a returnable can I had, "Are you looking for cans?" I asked him. He said, "No , I am not looking for cans." I kept walking down the street behind him and noticed he was going though more garbage cans. He definitely was not looking for cans or bottles for the cash return value. He had a Starbuck's cup in his hand and he went to the next sidewalk trash can and jacked open the heavy top and was going though the garbage but again did not pick out any cans. Why was he going though the trash?
I walked along the street in the same direction he was going and he did the same thing again and this time I watched to see what he was doing. This time he lifted off the heavy lid of the trash can and started going though. I saw what he was up to. He deposited his old Starbucks coffee cup and he took a new one out of the trash and proceeded to drink the last sips left in it. He did not like the taste and spit it out over the concrete pavement. Then he started drinking the rest of what was left in a different Starbuck's cup and was on to the next garbage can to repeat the procedure. He was after the left-over saliva drenched last sips in the discarded Starbuck's Coffee cups. When you need a free cup of coffee there is always a way to get one, a few sips at a time...The meaning is, If I dare say it, is that there is no reason to fear that leaving extra coffee in your cup before you toss it into a trash can is going to cause it to go to waste. Meaning!
I got back home and told someone about this guy picking the discarded coffee cups to take the last remaining sips from each all along NW 23rd Street near downtown Portland and she said, "Geeze why didn't you buy him a fresh cup of coffee?" Thats the way women think. I never thought of buying him a cup of coffee because I was too busy trying to figure out what he was doing. I could have bought him a cup of coffee or given him money for a cup of coffee but it just never occurred to me to do so. It seemed good to the last drop but was it meaningful? Free coffee will never be the same in my mind. Meaning is a form of mind pollution.
How much does the meaning of life cost? Can I afford it?
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Best Kept Secret Park in Lake Oswego Great for Bike Riders, Walking and Running with Scenic River Views Lex Loeb Contributor Network . Lake Oswego does not like to advertise some of its best attractions for fear of attracting non-locals. The area has many interesting treasures almost no one from the Portland area bothers to explore. Lake Oswego has long had the cache' of an upper middle class white Anglo Saxon enclave that does not want the company of everyone from the Portland Metro Area coming in. One can't blame the present day city for trying to protect itself against crowds of non local strangers using their public facilities. Anyone who has been to lake Oswego actual lake knows it is a privately owned body of water that does not welcome the public access in anyway. That is not true of the Oswego Furnace Tower in George Rogers Park or Old River Drive that connects to the park's main pathway up along the Willamette river front. Along most of Old River drive the fro
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