THE TIGER

Bawb - wow! What a surprise! Actually, I'd be interested to hear about your spiritual beliefs too. (I've been reading your stuff over on Spontaneous Poems).

To be honest, Aidan..I really don't know what this thread is about. I read it, and it seemed like their must have been a big post that I was missing.

Their just seemed to be a bit of mayhem going on, so I threw in one of my cheesy sayings.:wink:



And, I'm really not sure about my beliefs right now, I'll have to think about it more..

Christ, another psycho!

Broad-bottomed silk knickers and 46DD upper storey management.

Don't be so shy and retiring as to say things like-



It is very alluring I know but I have seen it done before. You are the biggest player here. The Muse--mysteriously shy.

My Mother specifically warned me about the "Quiet Ones" in tones that had me worried.

Not here to cause harm,
Only here to disarm,

You got me pegged Spendius! How'd you guess so accurately from just a face shot?

Me shy? Why would you say that? Am I a quiet one? I'm so confused. I don't think of myself as particularly shy or quiet (although I do have kind of a soft voice) .

Bawb - this thread is about a crazy old tiger- that's it in a nutshell.

It's not the face shot.

It was a sort of sociological hypothesis. Why would anybody go jogging and walking up and down the hilly slopes unless they were worried about their weight and physical fitness and why would anybody be worried about those unless they were a bit out of condition and had to wear-



to keep the fat under some sort of control and presenting it in as dignified a fashion as possible given all the circumstances.

The mug shot might not even be genuine but creative writing is a dead give-away.

First of all, I don't jog- bad knees. When I walked that thirty miles, my left knee and both of my hips were killing me by the time I got halfway through - and I mean, KILLING ME. I really think I'm going to suffer with arthritis when I get older- it runs in my family-so I'm trying to stave it off.

That's why I walk. When I was in my late twenties or early thirties, my knees hurt all the time. My elbows too- at the joints. When I would carry a bag of groceries home from the store, I would literally have to use my other hand to lift my arm up far enough for my hand to be able to turn the door knob and open the door. So I went to the doctor. He said, "The best thing to do is get gentle exercise everyday. Your inclination will be not to move, but you have to keep moving in a way that isn't stressful to your joints - swimming, yoga, walking...." I was living in rural Maine, by a river, out in the woods. I've always loved nature and being in it, so walking everyday was the natural choice. It has become somewhat of an addiction - kind of like your daily pub run- but my knees rarely ever hurt now except when I overdue it. And yeah, I do like to be healthy but I love food and don't like to feel fat- so I exercise- but yeah obesity runs in my family too (among the women) so every year, it's starting to take just a little more effort.

The picture is real Spendius. If I was going to put a fake one up - I'd have found something much more stunning and attractive- and one that didn't look like I was growing a beard, as Mathos told me.

I'm not going to tell you what kind of underwear I wear - but I will tell you a funny story. When I was in the states, I had to buy some bras for a friend of mine to bring back here - she can't get them here (they're Warner and they don't ship overseas). Coincidentally, she needed 46DD. I brought them up to the cash register and the woman looked at the package, looked at me, looked at the package again, and said, "Are you sure these are what you want, sweetheart?" I said, "Yep, I have the serial number here and everything; these are the right ones." Then she looked very pointedly at my chest and said, "But are they the right size?" very skeptically. And then I realized what she was saying and told her they were for a friend. We both started laughing. Let's just say, I'll never have to worry about overendowment in that department. When I brought them back I told the story to my friend and her husband and he said, "You could strap those bras to your buttocks and still have extra room, forget about your chest." My friend slapped him, and told him to shut up and apologized to me, but I thought it was funny.

But what does the creative writing have to do with anything?

You know, I just took my walk and the whole time I was thinking about why the size of things matters so much to men. I mean they're just body parts. And I was really mad at myself for feeling that I had to convince you that I wasn't heavy. Why does that matter at all?

I met this woman the other day who works with my husband (I was dropping the kids off at his office). She is absolutely gorgeous. Chestnut hair, perfect creamy complexion, kind of slanty, cat-like green/blue eyes. She was smart, she had a lovely personality and really soothing, well-modulated speaking voice. If I'd been so inclined I would have asked her out.
And she was telling me how she hasn't had a date in years.

So I was asking my husband later, "Have you noticed how beautiful K. is? He just looked at me like I was crazy. He said, "You think so?" I said, "She's gorgeous." He just said, "Not my type" and I knew exactly what he was referring to - she's heavy in a full-figured way. Not obese or unhealthy looking or anything - just rounded and full-figured. I said, "I think she's very attractive." He said, "I haven't really noticed."

And I think that's true. Guys don't look past the size sometimes. Why is that?
*Spendius - if you'll come to an a2k meeting, I'll try to get her to come with me. I'm determined to see you settled with a nice, smart, young woman.

Is that a nudge in the ribs Becksie?



From your description she would shred my brains especially if she really is smart. What has "nice" got to do with it?

Becksie wrote-



Oh! The sweet innocence of these refined American ladies.

Your confusions over symbolisms being a direct result.

Spendius - stop being so cryptic. What confusion over symbolism are you referring to?

People who are happy never even think about happiness.

You discussed symbolism on the Questions Game I think.

Have you read



It's a starter manual.

Spendius, people who are happy acknowledge every little gift, however inconsequential and small it may seem to others, and are in an almost constant state of gratefulness. I think they think about happiness all the time. They're the ones who are able to recognize it and give it a name.
Think about a small child whose cognitive development is still so concrete s/he doesn't even recognize his or her own emotions- the first one they usually do recognize and name is: happiness (and for some in less fortunate circumstances: sadness).

You discussed symbolism on the Questions Game I think.

Have you read





I have read it for a class I took once.

Have you now??

That's most interesting. One can get ladies to reveal important tit-bits with a little gentle probing. Fancy coming across a lady in the pub who had read that. If I had a tail it would be wagging.

What did you make of it?

Oh-the child is at its happiest before such concepts as "happiness" are forced into its sweet little head. One might love playing cricket but one is not conscious of it when a fierce fast bowler is about to deliver a 92mph fizzer on a greenish pitch first thing in the morning. And even less so, if that is possible, if it gets him in the unpadded ribs.

We have enthusiasms in order to just be not thinking about being happy or sad. I have so many enthusiasms that I never know which to have a go at next. A2K's my No1 but when it goes cool I have plenty of others. Foreign holidays are so far down the list that they have dropped off the end and I'm not enthusiastic about them at all. I had a free 14 month long one which I enthusiastically volunteered for and that cured me of any residual yearnings in that regard. It cured most who underwent it.

Have you read Ted Hughes's Shakespeare and the Goddess of Complete Being. That's a wackerooonie!

You know what I'm finding really interesting? My grammar tonight. I put, "I have read it for a class I took once." That should have been either, "I did read it for a class I took once" or "I have read it - for a class I took once."

Anyway, I read it for a cultural anthropology class I took. I found it interesting. The whole concept of archtypal symbolism and how very diverse cultures attribute the same meaning and value to certain set symbols and how these are repeated throughout history is interesting and comforting in terms of establishing connections with other beings as human. I think it should be required reading. I'm sure it would alleviate a lot of isolationist and nationalistic sentiment which contributes so much to the violence against peoples who are seen as "other" in the world.
It was kind of an "oh...now I get it" moment for me- I had patterns pointed out to me that I'd never recognized before, and it informed my thoughts on a lot of my own behavior. But I had a lot of those moments in college. I'd come from a fairly conservative, religious background and I went to a fairly liberal school and just had my head pretty much turned around on my shoulders during those four years.
Actually, I was taking this class my freshman year (oops, I used one of those American terms, sorry- but don't worry - freshmen are the lowest of the low)- anyway either right at the time or soon before the whole Jim Jones fiasco took place. Was that a big story over here? It was pretty wild to view that whole thing through the lens of cultural anthropology.

I did not say the child is happiest before such concepts as "happiness" are forced into its head. I said, even a child is capable of thinking about and recognizing happiness.

I think enthusiasms make us happy. Diversions are what keep us from thinking about being happy or sad.

I've read some of Ted Hughes. I have an aversion to him just on principal. Did you know that two of his wives committed suicide? He left Sylvia Plath and his two children for another woman, and Plath committed suicide and then the woman he left her for also ended up committing suicide, and I think if I remember correctly did it in such a way that their small daughter was also killed.
Noone can be blamed for someone else's decision to commit suicide, but you gotta wonder about a guy who has two wives who both commit suicide.
I like his stuff sometimes - it's nature-y, but I don't think I've read Shakespeare and the Goddess of Complete Being. How's it wacko?

Becksie wrote-



Oh no. That's no good.Nor interesting. What difference does the grammar make in this instance. The important thing is that you read the book materialistically as if it could just as easily have been a cookery book had it been for a domestic science class it was being read for.

One should read out of one's fascinations. I would have got to The Great Mother whatever my occupations might have been. It was just a matter of time. Which doesn't mean to say that reading it as you did is useless but only that it is different.

If you read with no agenda, and don't ask, you read without direction. You end up confused. Some people are fascinated with "War" literature and they all get to certain books at some point and are thus well qualified to recommend policies to the Government about what to do with the mess in the Middle-East.



That's true.



Because it's capable doesn't mean it should have it rammed down its throat morning, noon and night. A child is capable of pressing the button that turns all the lights out.

Bath time.

But you know Spendius - at the same time, archetypes, if taken on their own and bought into wholesale without the benefit of experience or allowing for individual differences that come with experience, can be just as dangerous and stereotyping as nationalism and/or isolationism. In fact, in some way, it is an isolationists view.

As a woman, when I read about archtypes of women, I said it informed my thoughts on some of my own behaviors, but at the same time, I understood that it was not the only influence on my behavior- I do believe in self-determination as well. It's worrisome to think of a man attributing archetypal characteristics to all women without the additional allowance for each woman's own individual will in terms of making choices for her behavior.

Some of the archetypal characteristics attributed to women are extremely negative. Others are positive and benevolent. It worries me that you seem to focus on the negative somewhat-women as archetypal tricksters and deceivers and the downfall of men...etc.

*That's why you just need to find a "nice", simple girl. She'd take all that archetypal crap out of your head.

Good night to you too.

Right-I totally agree with that last sentence, except I don't believe you really believe that.

I did read the book with an agenda and direction. Just because it wasn't the same agenda or direction with which you read it doesn't make it any less valid Spendius.
That's fairly condescending. Do you also think that everyone who has a different agenda and direction to their reading and might come to a different conclusion are automatically to be classified as "confused"?

I thought you didn't buy into that elitist bullshit.

What the hell is the matter with you? You get all mad because I didn't search this book out on my own and read it? I read mostly fiction Spendius. That's just my preference. I like novels and poetry and biography. I'm sorry if that is somehow disappointing to you. Sometimes you act like the archetypal spoiled brat - you know that?


Have a nice one.