One thing you would do differently

@fmf said
That would make me Charlie Cheswick.

@fmf said
That would make me Charlie Cheswick.

@the-gravedigger said
I would have thought more R.P. McMurphy.

@fmf said
That'd be divegeester.

@very-rusty said
Agreed, you'd be more like Donald Trump!!! 🙂 Only not as bright. 😛

-VR

@fmf said
"Getting the hem of [my] skirt wet"?

Are you likening me to a woman?

@pettytalk said
Are you implying that everyone who wears skirts is a woman? This seems to overlook the masculinity of Scottish men who wear traditional clothing. Moreover, it disregards the many notable men throughout history who have worn skirts. After all, the presence of a skirt does not define someone as either male or female.

You are a hypocrite. You had the audacity to admonish those whom you believed were offending those from Scotland.

@drewnogal said
You need to catch up on last night’s discourse on his Indonesian batik sarong 🙂

I'm catching up on this thread's posited opportunity to express our opinions of one thing we may do differently, provided it were possible and permissible.

I believe that down here on earth it's not possible to do anything differently from the life we chose, before coming down. For instance, if I would say that one thing I would do differently in this life is to never having started smoking tobacco. Typically, the need or want to do things differently is because we feel we can do something better, and/or it's better for us in one way or another. Sometimes we may want to do things differently simply for the sake of change. Monotony naturally spurs us on for a change, which can come only if we are afforded the means and the opportunities.

After having smoked for 20 years, I eventually overcame the addiction successfully, because I chose to stop. But do we genuinely choose, or is it merely a deceptive illusion of free will?

The only place where we can truly choose to act differently lies beyond this world. Everything we say and do throughout this present cycle of life and death is what we were permitted to choose from a vast array of potential lives. The availability of choices is said to be contingent upon the outcome of a random draw. The choosing from what is available requires more than luck. It requires careful consideration and a good permanent true memory. Or as we say in today's technological world, Non-volatile memory, such as Read-Only Memory (ROM), or Solid-State Drives (SSD) which retain stored information on the PC even after power is removed.

Or as 'Jeezus' would say, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God.”

A very solid-state, read-only entity, 'The Republic,' which is likened to a kingdom of God.

When Er and the spirits arrived, their duty was to go at once to Lachesis; but first of all there came a prophet who arranged them in order; then he took from the knees of Lachesis lots and samples of lives, and having mounted a high pulpit, spoke as follows: ‘Hear the word of Lachesis, the daughter of Necessity. Mortal souls, behold a new cycle of life and mortality. Your genius will not be allotted to you, but you will choose your genius; and let him who draws the first lot have the first choice, and the life which he chooses shall be his destiny. Virtue is free, and as a man honours or dishonours her he will have more or less of her; the responsibility is with the chooser—God is justified.’ When the Interpreter had thus spoken he scattered lots indifferently among them all, and each of them took up the lot which fell near him, all but Er himself (he was not allowed), and each as he took his lot perceived the number which he had obtained. Then the Interpreter placed on the ground before them the samples of lives; and there were many more lives than the souls present, and they were of all sorts. There were lives of every animal and of man in every condition. And there were tyrannies among them, some lasting out the tyrant’s life, others which broke off in the middle and came to an end in poverty and exile and beggary; and there were lives of famous men, some who were famous for their form and beauty as well as for their strength and success in games, or, again, for their birth and the qualities of their ancestors; and some who were the reverse of famous for the opposite qualities. And of women likewise; there was not, however, any definite character in them, because the soul, when choosing a new life, must of necessity become different. But there was every other quality, and the all mingled with one another, and also with elements of wealth and poverty, and disease and health; and there were mean states also. And here, my dear Glaucon, is the supreme peril of our human state; and therefore the utmost care should be taken. Let each one of us leave every other kind of knowledge and seek and follow one thing only, if peradventure he may be able to learn and may find some one who will make him able to learn and discern between good and evil, and so to choose always and everywhere the better life as he has opportunity. He should consider the bearing of all these things which have been mentioned severally and collectively upon virtue; he should know what the effect of beauty is when combined with poverty or wealth in a particular soul, and what are the good and evil consequences of noble and humble birth, of private and public station, of strength and weakness, of cleverness and dullness, and of all the natural and acquired gifts of the soul, and the operation of them when conjoined; he will then look at the nature of the soul, and from the consideration of all these qualities he will be able to determine which is the better and which is the worse; and so he will choose, giving the name of evil to the life which will make his soul more unjust, and good to the life which will make his soul more just; all else he will disregard. For we have seen and know that this is the best choice both in life and after death. A man must take with him into the world below an adamantine faith in truth and right, that there too he may be undazzled by the desire of wealth or the other allurements of evil, lest, coming upon tyrannies and similar villainies, he do irremediable wrongs to others and suffer yet worse himself; but let him know how to choose the mean and avoid the extremes on either side, as far as possible, not only in this life but in all that which is to come. For this is the way of happiness.

And according to the report of the messenger from the other world this was what the prophet said at the time: ‘Even for the last comer, if he chooses wisely and will live diligently, there is appointed a happy and not undesirable existence. Let not him who chooses first be careless, and let not the last despair.’ And when he had spoken, he who had the first choice came forward and in a moment chose the greatest tyranny; his mind having been darkened by folly and sensuality, he had not thought out the whole matter before he chose, and did not at first sight perceive that he was fated, among other evils, to devour his own children. But when he had time to reflect, and saw what was in the lot, he began to beat his breast and lament over his choice, forgetting the proclamation of the prophet; for, instead of throwing the blame of his misfortune on himself, he accused chance and the gods, and everything rather than himself. Now he was one of those who came from heaven, and in a former life had dwelt in a well-ordered State, but his virtue was a matter of habit only, and he had no philosophy. And it was true of others who were similarly overtaken, that the greater number of them came from heaven and therefore they had never been schooled by trial, whereas the pilgrims who came from earth having themselves suffered and seen others suffer, were not in a hurry to choose. And owing to this inexperience of theirs, and also because the lot was a chance, many of the souls exchanged a good destiny for an evil or an evil for a good. For if a man had always on his arrival in this world dedicated himself from the first to sound philosophy, and had been moderately fortunate in the number of the lot, he might, as the messenger reported, be happy here, and also his journey to another life and return to this, instead of being rough and underground, would be smooth and heavenly. Most curious, he said, was the spectacle—sad and laughable and strange; for the choice of the souls was in most cases based on their experience of a previous life. There he saw the soul which had once been Orpheus choosing the life of a swan out of enmity to the race of women, hating to be born of a woman because they had been his murderers; he beheld also the soul of Thamyras choosing the life of a nightingale; birds, on the other hand, like the swan and other musicians, wanting to be men. The soul which obtained the twentieth lot chose the life of a lion, and this was the soul of Ajax the son of Telamon, who would not be a man, remembering the injustice which was done him in the judgment about the arms. The next was Agamemnon, who took the life of an eagle, because, like Ajax, he hated human nature by reason of his sufferings. About the middle came the lot of Atalanta; she, seeing the great fame of an athlete, was unable to resist the temptation: and after her there followed the soul of Epeus the son of Panopeus passing into the nature of a woman cunning in the arts; and far away among the last who chose, the soul of the jester Thersites was putting on the form of a monkey. There came also the soul of Odysseus having yet to make a choice, and his lot happened to be the last of them all. Now the recollection of former toils had disenchanted him of ambition, and he went about for a considerable time in search of the life of a private man who had no cares; he had some difficulty in finding this, which was lying about and had been neglected by everybody else; and when he saw it, he said that he would have done the same had his lot been first instead of last, and that he was delighted to have it. And not only did men pass into animals, but I must also mention that there were animals tame and wild who changed into one another and into corresponding human natures—the good into the gentle and the evil into the savage, in all sorts of combinations.

@pettytalk said
Are you implying that everyone who wears skirts is a woman? This seems to overlook the masculinity of Scottish men who wear traditional clothing. Moreover, it disregards the many notable men throughout history who have worn skirts. After all, the presence of a skirt does not define someone as either male or female.

You are a hypocrite. You had the audacity to admonish those whom you believed were offending those from Scotland.

@pettytalk said
I'm catching up on this thread's posited opportunity to express our opinions of one thing we may do differently, provided it were possible and permissible.

I believe that down here on earth it's not possible to do anything differently from the life we chose, before coming down. For instance, if I would say that one thing I would do differently in this life is to never ha ...[text shortened]... g human natures—the good into the gentle and the evil into the savage, in all sorts of combinations.

@pettytalk said
I'm catching up on this thread's posited opportunity to express our opinions of one thing we may do differently, provided it were possible and permissible.

I believe that down here on earth it's not possible to do anything differently from the life we chose, before coming down. For instance, if I would say that one thing I would do differently in this life is to never ha ...[text shortened]... g human natures—the good into the gentle and the evil into the savage, in all sorts of combinations.

@pettytalk said
After having smoked for 20 years, I eventually overcame the addiction successfully, because I chose to stop. But do we genuinely choose, or is it merely a deceptive illusion of free will?

@ghost-of-a-duke said
Choosing to stop doing something we are addicted to definitely involves a conscious choice/decision. (As it goes against a physical compulsion).

Well done for quitting though. It's a horrible habit.

@suzianne said
Ouch!