Don't worry, be Finnish!

Started by JBS, March 20, 2019, 08:38:59 AM

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JBS


Hollywood Beach Broadwalk

vandermolen

Doesn't surprise me at all. My Finnish childhood friend is a remarkably happy and level-headed individual. They have the most honest citizens as well, as evidenced in the experiment where ten wallets were deliberately left in the streets of various European capitals. Finland (Helsinki) had 9/10 handed in to the authorities, which was the highest number in Europe. When I drew my friend's attention to this experiment his response was: 'What happened to the tenth one?!'
"Courage is going from failure to failure without losing enthusiasm" (Churchill).

'The test of a work of art is, in the end, our affection for it, not our ability to explain why it is good' (Stanley Kubrick).

Ghost of Baron Scarpia

I dropped my wallet in the main atrium of Grand Central Station, in New York City. It was turned in, so there! :)

Jaakko Keskinen

#3
It depends on the circumstances. It can be challenging to be happy when two close family members are dead by their own hand and having a life starting from the early childhood marked by horrible things. On the other hand it would suck even more if I would live on the streets so I guess that's a plus.
"Javert, though frightful, had nothing ignoble about him. Probity, sincerity, candor, conviction, the sense of duty, are things which may become hideous when wrongly directed; but which, even when hideous, remain grand."

- Victor Hugo

vandermolen

Quote from: Ghost of Baron Scarpia on March 20, 2019, 09:01:30 AM
I dropped my wallet in the main atrium of Grand Central Station, in New York City. It was turned in, so there! :)
Excellent and glad to hear it! I don't think that the experiment included the USA.
"Courage is going from failure to failure without losing enthusiasm" (Churchill).

'The test of a work of art is, in the end, our affection for it, not our ability to explain why it is good' (Stanley Kubrick).

vandermolen

Quote from: Alberich on March 20, 2019, 09:09:09 AM
It depends on the circumstances. It can be challenging to be happy when two close family members are dead by their own hand and having a life starting from the early childhood marked by horrible things. On the other hand it would suck even more if I would live on the streets so I guess that's a plus.

Of course you are right about individual life circumstances.
"Courage is going from failure to failure without losing enthusiasm" (Churchill).

'The test of a work of art is, in the end, our affection for it, not our ability to explain why it is good' (Stanley Kubrick).

Karl Henning

Karl Henning, Ph.D.
Composer & Clarinetist
Boston MA
http://www.karlhenning.com/
[Matisse] was interested neither in fending off opposition,
nor in competing for the favor of wayward friends.
His only competition was with himself. — Françoise Gilot

JBS

Quote from: Alberich on March 20, 2019, 09:09:09 AM
It depends on the circumstances. It can be challenging to be happy when two close family members are dead by their own hand and having a life starting from the early childhood marked by horrible things. On the other hand it would suck even more if I would live on the streets so I guess that's a plus.

About ten years ago, I was at a particularly low point, emotionally and physically. One of the things that brought me through was noticing that there were plenty of people far worse off than me. Not meaning people in war zones or anything like that, but people I was seeing and never quite noticing until I looked.

Hollywood Beach Broadwalk

premont

I feel happy, Denmark is no. 2 after all.  :)
γνῶθι σεαυτόν

71 dB

Just two days ago I though "Hey the new happiness ranking by UN is coming out and Finland will propably lose it's ranking as the happiest country in the world", but Finland kept the first place.

I have been the happiest in the 80's before adulthood. During the 90's I started to feel anxiety realizing that adult life if difficult and hard. I realized I am not good for anything and that life is a struggle in which I rarely do well no matter how hard I try. Life has become fighting depression, but things like music help a lot. So even in Finland people can be unhappy. Keith Flint's suicide was yet another negative uncalled thing that keep happening. Edgar Froese's death made me not want to listen to Tangerine Dream for a year, but surpringly listening to The Prodigy helps dealing with this. That kind of super-energetic music helps dealing with all the dark thoughs I have. I feel all I am good for is having meltdowns online...
Spatial distortion is a serious problem deteriorating headphone listening.
Crossfeeders reduce spatial distortion and make the sound more natural
and less tiresome in headphone listening.

My Sound Cloud page <-- NEW Jan. 2024 "Harpeggiator"

Rinaldo

Quote from: 71 dB on March 20, 2019, 12:12:13 PMLife has become fighting depression, but things like music help a lot.

You don't have to fight it alone. Music is your ally, so can be other people. Professionals, even. I consider myself lucky – even though I had to deal with a tragedy in my life, depression was never an issue. But I know people around me who are fighting that bitch day and night. There's help, if you seek it.

QuoteI feel all I am good for is having meltdowns online..

Feel is the key word here. I don't know you obviously, but you do come across as a passionate person who cares about the well-being of others. That definitely amounts to something in my book. Also, high five for The Prodigy! Their first two records are essential and the rest is not too shabby either.

drogulus

#11

    Sweden seems like a good country for someone like me. You can drink lots of coffee and take your shoes off in people's houses.

    Oh, and also you can wear blue jeans and a sweater or long sleeved shirt almost everywhere.
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71 dB

Quote from: drogulus on March 21, 2019, 08:50:08 AM
    Sweden seems like a good country for someone like me. You can drink lots of coffee and take your shoes off in people's houses.

    Oh, and also you can wear blue jeans and a sweater or long sleeved shirt almost everywhere.

We Finns drink coffee even more than Swedes, in fact more than anybody and we also take shoes off in people's houses just as Swedes.  ;)
Spatial distortion is a serious problem deteriorating headphone listening.
Crossfeeders reduce spatial distortion and make the sound more natural
and less tiresome in headphone listening.

My Sound Cloud page <-- NEW Jan. 2024 "Harpeggiator"

71 dB

Quote from: Rinaldo on March 20, 2019, 01:10:52 PM
You don't have to fight it alone. Music is your ally, so can be other people. Professionals, even. I consider myself lucky – even though I had to deal with a tragedy in my life, depression was never an issue. But I know people around me who are fighting that bitch day and night. There's help, if you seek it.

Feel is the key word here. I don't know you obviously, but you do come across as a passionate person who cares about the well-being of others. That definitely amounts to something in my book. Also, high five for The Prodigy! Their first two records are essential and the rest is not too shabby either.

I worry too much about things. I worry about things like Trump starting a war in Venezuela in order to boost his approval rating for 2020 election and to serve the fossile fuel industry. That's so 19th century to me. Mankind should be past such evil greed in the 21st century... 

All The Prodigy albums are essential, but I agree with the first two being the best, Music for the Jilted Generation being the best.  ;)
Spatial distortion is a serious problem deteriorating headphone listening.
Crossfeeders reduce spatial distortion and make the sound more natural
and less tiresome in headphone listening.

My Sound Cloud page <-- NEW Jan. 2024 "Harpeggiator"

vandermolen

This is turning into an interesting thread. I have often consoled myself, during particularly difficult times, with Alan Watts's reference to Dante's Divine Comedy:

...'the way out of Hell is through the centre'.
"Courage is going from failure to failure without losing enthusiasm" (Churchill).

'The test of a work of art is, in the end, our affection for it, not our ability to explain why it is good' (Stanley Kubrick).

Ghost of Baron Scarpia


My personal philosophy can be expressed as a sort of vague, westernized abstract of Buddhism. Dissatisfaction is the result of desire or attachment to impermanent feelings and things. The path to satisfaction to to disengage from the habit of clinging to impermanent things. This involves grounding yourself, embracing the here and now, embracing self-awareness, self-restraint, kindness and compassion.

Traditionally there is a wealth of supernatural context to Buddhism, reincarnation, escaping the cycle of death and rebirth, nirvana, etc. I find Buddhist ideas valuable because (as I read somewhere) the human mind evolved to enable humans to survive, not to make humans happy. Buddhism is the best "hack" for programming the human mind to be satisfied.

North Star

"Everything has beauty, but not everyone sees it." - Confucius

My photographs on Flickr

Karl Henning

Quote from: 71 dB on March 21, 2019, 08:58:15 AM
We Finns drink coffee even more than Swedes, in fact more than anybody and we also take shoes off in people's houses just as Swedes.  ;)

Finland was a Swedish duchy back in the day, wasn't it?
Karl Henning, Ph.D.
Composer & Clarinetist
Boston MA
http://www.karlhenning.com/
[Matisse] was interested neither in fending off opposition,
nor in competing for the favor of wayward friends.
His only competition was with himself. — Françoise Gilot

vandermolen

Quote from: Ghost of Baron Scarpia on March 21, 2019, 09:42:06 AM
My personal philosophy can be expressed as a sort of vague, westernized abstract of Buddhism. Dissatisfaction is the result of desire or attachment to impermanent feelings and things. The path to satisfaction to to disengage from the habit of clinging to impermanent things. This involves grounding yourself, embracing the here and now, embracing self-awareness, self-restraint, kindness and compassion.

Traditionally there is a wealth of supernatural context to Buddhism, reincarnation, escaping the cycle of death and rebirth, nirvana, etc. I find Buddhist ideas valuable because (as I read somewhere) the human mind evolved to enable humans to survive, not to make humans happy. Buddhism is the best "hack" for programming the human mind to be satisfied.

I very much like the Buddhist quote:

'There is praise and blame, loss and gain, pleasure and pain, fame and disrepute

- did you think this would not happen to you?'
"Courage is going from failure to failure without losing enthusiasm" (Churchill).

'The test of a work of art is, in the end, our affection for it, not our ability to explain why it is good' (Stanley Kubrick).

Ghost of Baron Scarpia

Quote from: vandermolen on March 21, 2019, 10:27:47 AM
I very much like the Buddhist quote:

'There is praise and blame, loss and gain, pleasure and pain, fame and disrepute

- did you think this would not happen to you?'

Sounds like my experience on this web site. :)