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May 18, 2008 |
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Live Every Day
FOUND by Joanna Wilson
in Melbourne, Australia
I found this stuck up on the wall of a gorgeous, old, eccentric woman's apartment. As caretakers of the property in which she lived, my husband and I went in to clean up her apartment after she had died when we found this wonderful note.
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Hella October 16, 2007 |
I Don't Know How... October 12, 2003 |
A Cup of Tea August 11, 2002 |
Things To Do October 22, 2006 |
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We collect FOUND stuff: love letters, birthday cards, kids' homework,
to-do lists, ticket stubs, poetry on napkins, telephone bills, doodles -
anything that gives a glimpse into someone
else's life. Anything goes...
words to live by . . . thanks
Awww, I guess she was right.
That's a such wonderful philosphy... and I'm glad the Old Eccentric Woman has been immortalized on Found!!
(Hmm... that means that, after she had her last day, she gained a somewhat eternal life on the internet?)
I think this philosophy can be carried too far, though. (Oh, heck with the laundry, today might be my last day! Oh heck with the house payment... Pay insurance? Poker debts?)
Gorgeous, old eccentric women are what I live for.
I'm glad this one is immortalized here today; wish I'd known her.
That note looks more like a threat than a philosophy!
Another "Synchronistic Finding" from tonite's "Found"!!! .... Please try to follow this; it's tuff to explain.
As I started to add another post (see paragraph below), I decided to see if I could find out truth-or-not on snopes.com. Here is the story I tried to research:
..."Has anyone else heard or read about some guy who sued his doctor because the guy lived too long? ... Doc told him he had six months to live, so he decided to spend all his money, retirement funds, buy things on credit (like Jaguars and yachts and stuff)…. And then he LIVED!! And he got mad and thought the doctor should pay for his felonious spending, so he sued the doc."
Either "snopes.com" doesn't list this story, or I didn't use the correct words in the "search" feature. I wrote "doctor sue 6 months to live"
Toward the top of the list of possible matches was one about Steve Jobs' commencement address at Stanford in 2005. It's great! (short) -- AND he uses the "Live-Every-Day-as-if-it-were" quote found in the Eccentric Aussie Lady's house, above!! He saw the quote when he was 17 and remembered it thru his life.
(the reason his address came on the list was because he had *been diagnosed with incurable cancer and given 6 months to live*!! a year before.. and it turned out better than that.)
I hope somebody understands my babbling report here... anyway it was a "du-do-du-duu" Twilight Zone moment!!
Oh... here is the link to the Steve Jobs commencement address:
http://www.snopes.com/glurge/stevejobs.asp
if you care to read it. (I recommend it; it's cool, easy to read, and a lot shorter than MY typical posts!)
This comes close to my own philosophy of life: "Live as if it were true." As if your beliefs really are important; as if your actions really can make a difference; as if you are a person of value...it covers a lot of bases. Live "as if" it were true--and it is.
does this mean you should never ever
do laundry? never get a haircut?
never wash your car? never get a pet?
"does this mean you should never ever
do laundry? never get a haircut?
never wash your car? never get a pet?"
It means that you should enjoy it all.
exactly. and i am merely a middling-age eccentric woman, but this is true- it doesn't have to mean going to excess in decadence, but instead tell someone you love them, pet the dog, look at everything, be in the moment, even if the moment is sad/mad/fusterating etc. not always easy to practice or remember, and i think it must be like zen- the trick to doing it is to just *do* it. just live. and now, for some coffee and petting of dogs.
You have a good point. But I wasn't talking
about enjoying or not enjoying things, I meant
this: say it's your last day (and you know it),
and it's time to renew your driver's license.
Would you really tell your friends and loved
ones, "I'd love to spend today with you, but
I'm going to go spend the day at the DMV instead."
didn't the guy living too long happen on an episode of house? vaguely familiar, as it was some sort of misdiagnosis.
or perhaps i'm wrong.
this find gave me post secret vibes. crafty eccentric old woman. i bet her house was also covered in random items. burning incense, gold framed mirrors, multiple velvet elvi and scads of house plants...
p.s. this site has the best spam protection i've ever seen. "Spell the word 'palindrome' backwards."
and the american translation:
use every resource as if it were the last because one day you'll be right.
@Camelia
You're right, inspiring speech. You can see him deliver it in person here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UF8uR6Z6KLc
Oh, and is this the story you were referring to? http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/news
The second link was too long I suppose. Here you go:
http://tinyurl.com/2bpwou
@ aladd in sane:
In the 1980's Alec Guiness made a movie called "Last Holiday" about a mousey sort of guy who gets an imminent death diagnosis and who decides to go on a spree and kick over the traces. For the first time in his life, he really starts to live. Then he learns that the doctors switched x-rays, and he's not dying after all. No lawsuit, though.
@wrye in love
My life is permanently fusterating.
meh.
You'll also be wrong about 20,000 times.
I'm all for stopping to smell the roses, enjoying the journey, etc. but these types of sayings remind me of a street huckster abroad smiling his cheeks off (not all that convincingly) and calling to me "hey, my friend, my friend." Before trying to convince me of the great deals he had to offer, he asked me why I wasn't smiling, saying "Life is too short not to smile."
Actually, sounds hellish to me - 70 years of smiling, regardless of how I felt. I'll smile all those times I feel good, but mandatory smiling? I'd pray for each day to be my last...
Certain people I know definitely need more emphasis on taking in the moment, but I know just as many others in debt (both financial and interpersonally), without the first clue how to make a plan/goal and reach it or how to commit to something larger...
@Erp in Burp:
Thanks for reminding me of "Short Time" with Dabney Coleman back in 1990. Same plot sorta instead with a cop trying to get killed in the line of duty instead of dying from the disease.
It was either hilarious or I was just dumb back then...
Isn't it interesting the way she wrote over all the words, and underlined certain parts in multiple colors. It must have been on her wall a very long time, and as it faded, she reemphasized the thought and parts of the thought, as time went by. It is a visual of her self-talk.
I am very much enjoying the dialog going on in the comments today. There are so many ways to look at the same thing, that's what I like about Found!
@Camelia, what is it about Found that causes this simultaneity to happen? Just as I was reading orinoco's personal philosophy, I was looking pictures in the newspaper of Barack and Michelle's surprise stopovers at a local hospital and ice cream parlor yesterday and I thought.. that's what he's doing: living as if it were true. As if it were possible for a politician and his wife to stop off in a neighborhood ice cream parlor and chat with children and a woman celebrating her 90th birthday, as if he lived in the neighborhood and had a hankering for some ice cream on a 90-degree day. As if it were true that a presidential candidate could actually mingle among the common people, and so obviously enjoy them. It begins to make it true.
Great thought to keep in mind - especially on those days that suck.
The movie Short Time was a hilarious comedy for it's time! (1990) The main characters names were Burt and Ernie and their voices sounded strangly similar to the Sesame Street characters! I'll watch it again if it shows up on cable tv!
i watched an autopsy being done and the thing that struck me most was not the cutting up of the dead body, but the removal of the clothes first. as they removed the clothes of this relatively young person's corpse, i imagined that just hours before this person had chosen these clothes from their closet and put them on - buttoning buttons, tucking in a shirt, etc - without ever realizing it was the last thing they'd ever wear.
since that time, every morning when i get dressed i wonder briefly if this will be the last thing i ever wear. will i come home and throw it in a laundry hamper, or will someone remove it for me while my lifeless body lies inert upon a slab? the thoughts are probably pretty morbid , but they sort of lead to a "live every day as though it is your last" kind of subconscious mentality.
ohhhhhhhh, I should be ENJOYING life.... I see now......
Since I'm something of a news junkie almost every day I see reports of multiple deaths on CNN, whether it is the tens of thousands killed in China or Myanmar or just the equally tragic deaths of two people in a small plane crash, I always wonder how come my number hasn't come up yet, when so many die each day. (???)
"Joe vs. The Volcano"
My favorite movie about living like it was the end of your life.
Trite.
Cliche.
Bumper sticker.
T-shirt.
MySpace headline.
I very rarely criticize the Find itself, but these are the words and phrases that immediately sprang to mind when I saw this one.
Flargy, that's my reaction to the phrase too. What makes it interesting is the fact that this lady actually used it, and that's shown by the outlining of the letters and underlined emphasis, showing that she used this phrase in her life as more than a cliché. Whatever works to keep you going when life gets tough.. seems okay to me.
On a more commercial note, I know people who buy greeting cards and underline key words in the Hallmark message.. to give the message emphasis and make it more personal. Heck, I've probably been known to do that too.
I've lived like this for several years now... and it's exhausting but worth it. I used to fear death, now I know that when I die I will have live my life fully and have nothing to regret.
This saying doesn't mean that you have to ditch the mundane everyday stuff in favour of say, skydiving. It just means take the chances that come your way, and live life without cowering in the face of your fears. Live life honestly without all the pretences that are expected of us. It's a refreshing way to live.
My last day was spent commenting on Found. It was on Heart Receipt, which was appropriate as I died of heart failure.
Flargy, maybe the old woman who wrote this actually coined the phrase. Would it still be trite if it was original? Don't all cliches start out as good ideas?
I think I'll go make this my MySpace headline! Nah....
Depressed and crying my eyes out? Because if I knew it was my last, that's probably how I'd feel. Otherwise, I'd be getting into a whole LOT of trouble. Because if it was my last, I'd probably be doing things you can't get away with unless you're dying.
hilary and Josie, thank you.
Camelia and Clover, trust the synchronicity!
Trouble is, people can tell you their wise words and mottoes till they're blue in the face but unless it means anything to you it won't mean anything to you.
Then, when enlightenment dawns, you'll want to tell everyone else too, and they won't understand.
'Wish for everything to be exactly as it is. Then wait patiently for your wish to come true'.
I'm still trying to make sense of that one.
Ghost, you learned a lot that day. I am glad you stuck around though.
@ Orinoco – Great philosophy; it does cover a lot of bases.
@ Wrye – Another kindred spirit! I too am a middling age eccentric woman!!
@ Hans in Dubio – Wow, you’re magic, finding that article!! (Makes me wonder what Sally, the S.O. lady, was supposed to do when he ‘kicked the bucket’; their mortgage payments had been stopped, yanno?)
@ Clover – I agree that Found causes some strange simultaneity/synchronicity.. there’ve been quite a few that I haven’t even tried to report here!
I’m also impressed with Barack Obama’s continued demonstrations of Orinoco’s philosophy.
@ hilary in… I sure hate some of the Reality Checks that Life deals out! (that story adds a whole new dimension to the TV show ‘What Not to Wear’!)
@ Smallbear – I know *one* of the reasons that your number ain’t come up yet… You are destined to come here and add your thoughts & comments to Found!!
@ Flargy & Agent Ling Hi…
I heard a ‘definition of a cliché’ once – “A phrase that says something that needs to be said, and in such a right way, that it is repeated over & over.” The prof’s point was that, no matter how an overused cliché can make you nauseous, it was fresh and well-stated once! (Flarg – not a contradiction here, just another ‘point to view’)
@ Terrie-Is… I’m kinda afraid I’d do some of that Trouble Stuff too. Maybe not, tho’. Hmmm…?
That looks like a (poorly made) homemade bumper sticker.
@Camelia (thanks for reminding me, that even if no one responds to my posts they are still read and perhaps appreciated.)
@Jonathan "wish for everything to be exactly as it is..." desire to see things as they are, to accept them and understand the reality of the Universe as it is Now,in the past and into the future.To understand that what we see is truth, not hidden; not coded, but truth,complex though simple, mysterious though easy enough for a child to understand.
To accept what we have, to see how much is good in our lives. To want less. Live more. Be happy.
I think we all got enlightened by this FIND. No?
.
Hi @ Tiny Violin... Yes, both the FIND, and by the thoughts & comments posted.
@ Smallbear -- I would probably respond to you more, but my posts are almost always waaay too long! And, don't forget -- there are always 'lurkers' here, those who look but don't 'speak'!
@ Jonathan, Orinoco and Smallbear -- 2 years ago, I was 'going thru' a lot of stuff. I came back from a trip and had to clean up for out-of-town visitors. Job threatened; et cetera...
I turned over a calendar I'd chosen for the pictures. It was an Eckhart Tolle calendar (I hadn't heard of him then).. and the quote for June was *wonderful* - and saved my mental health at that time. It said:
.... "Accept, then act. Whatever the present moment contains, accept it as if you had chosen it. Always work with it, not against it. Make it your friend and ally, not your enemy. This will miraculously transform your whole life."
Camelia are you still here? I hate to leave a comment after those fantastic words. So I will pause first.
I'm just curious, do I know you?
I once knew a girl named Camelia when I lived in the SF Bay area. We worked at Tower Records. She was in a bad car accident with her friend. Her friend died, and Camelia was badly injured. I went to visit her in the hospital; she had broken her neck, or back, I think. It was a miracle she survived and wasn't paralyzed. This was a very long time ago, and there are probably lots of Camelias in Marin County. I can't remember her last name.
@Smallbear: Why would you wonder that? People die every day. People are born every day. Switch off the news, Cubby, and go LIVE. xx
(I always appreciate your comments.)
There's something not quite right about this quote. Instead of a "live life to the fullest extent" or "dance like no one's watching" vibe, there's something dark and cynical about this. Looking back at the comments, Cee in BC said it, "it sounds like a threat." Like some crabby old person is saying 'You better be happy now, because someday you'll be dead.' Blah. Not so affirming to me.
@Jonathan: 'Wish for everything to be exactly as it is. Then wait patiently for your wish to come true'=Love your life now.
...and after I'd posted my comment I clicked on my MySpace profile (to update my headline, ahem) and the random track that came up was Dylan Thomas's 'Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night'. *shiver*
Thanks all.
I too love gorgeous old eccentric women with a sense of humour who live life to the full.
(men too) (and young ones too)
(and small bears, clovers, camelias and nightingales, and tiny violins)
Why, Jonanthan, I believe that's so you'll feel personally welcomed to Found each and every day!
Seriously, I hate that, too, but I noticed that my address bar above saves the activation address (is that auto-history?), so I don't have to go all the way to my mailbox anymore. It says http://foundmagazine.com/users/activate/blahblah bunchofnumeralsandletters
Nightingale, I too believe that this find is a little cynical - I like that about it, don't you? It makes me feel a little guilty about not living my life to the fullest though...
I'm confused. Was the eccentric woman old and gorgeous or was the eccentric woman's appartment old and gorgeous?
Wonder how the eccentric woman lived her last day.
aladd in sane: yes it was an episode of House, or something along the same lines anyway.
Stop, and smell the roses!!
@ Clover!! I'm back & I saw your ??s to me...
RE: "I'm just curious, do I know you? I once knew a girl named Camelia when I lived in the SF Bay area. We worked at Tower Records...... This was a very long time ago, and there are probably lots of Camelias in Marin County. "
Not me, Clover -- First of all, I've never worked at Tower Records (I think I missed something!); I "lived" in Marin County for about 4 months once, but I worked downtown SF in the Financial District at the time.
--I live south of San Francisco, in Santa Clara County.
--Alas, my real name is not Camelia. That was a name given to me once, when I was 19 or 20. I'm not sure why, but apparently I was named after a kitten(!) So, it's an occasional nom d'plume (spell?) that I use.
--Actually, I am pretty open on this board, and it's not a 'protected' one. I have to watch myself so that I don't end a post by jotting my *real* name!
--BUT, of course you know me! We've been posting back-n-forth on this board for a while now! (*giggle*)
@Camelia.. not the Tower Records Camelia but a different one, oh well..so I know you but I don't know that I do know you. But you know that you know me. Maybe you will meet that Camelia sometime. Any time you meet someone named Camelia in the Bay Area, just ask, are you the Camelia who used to work at Tower Records and got in a bad accident a long time ago? If you find her, let me know! The world is small and the coincidences many!
Hi again Clover,
"The world is small and the coincidences many!" I have a friend that sez there are only 365 people in this world. I think he's correct! (or maybe that's an over-estimate?)
Another coincidental part of this is -- in 1994, a bff of mine, divorced, 50, kids all grown & gone - found the Love of Her Life. He owned a sailboat & diving & salvage business. They eventually both moved to the boat, and were going to do some long-haul sailing around (the continent - then the world). In 1996, on a Dark & Stormy night, they were in a tragic accident and *he* died. Only things 'broken' with her were her Life Plans & Dreams - and she suffers from brain damage, kind of like a stroke.
Perils, Parallels and Portals, eh?
I don't think anyone has posted this yet, but this is just a Ray Charles quote (I've seen it on a greeting card).
http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Ray_Charles
I seriously think that was mine - long story, but I lived out of a footlocker for a long time and had some similar stuff taped inside it. How it could have gotten half-way around the world is a mystery - maybe the old lady found it herself??!!
I have that sentiment taped to my bathroom mirror so I see it every day.