wpainterw

O.K. I'll go up to Alice Springs, sit down with the aborigines and learn to play the didgereedo. These "Dream People" can foretell the future. I sure can't!

wpainterw

Thanx Suze! "I'd go a million miles for one of your smiles" (cf. Al Jolson)

JoeCree

I thought you might be joking but didnt want to laugh just in case this was your 'dream'.... then i wasnt going to say anything, but thought if this is true there are a lot of crooked people who might want to take advantage of an 89 y/o. So i put it as lightly as possible..

Better safe than sry. I guess im the wet blanket everyone talks about.. lol

Hope you enjoyed the Mother Teresa canonization. JC

IvanMike

This too shall pass - even low moods.

I recently got the advice to not think too deeply as that always seems to foster depression and despondency. The world can be a dark place, and life can seem meaningless. The thought was once anathema to me, but now I'm content to be a tad superficial if it means being happy.

thomas11

Hi Bill, this breaks my heart. You have no idea how much YOU have helped ME to get my life right. I wish I was your neighbor...I'd stop over (if you were willing) and visit or take you out somewhere of your choice. Its not fair that good people have periods of being down. Sadly, it is a reality. Thinking about you.

wpainterw

Thank you so much, Thomas! I sense you are a kindred spirit. You have come to mean a lot to me. My spirits are improving but I have nightmares and awake confused as to what is real and what is dream. Like that Spanish story, or is it a play "Life is a Dream". By the Spanish author, Pedro Calderon de la Barca. Now I keep thinking of the last act of Wagner's Parsifal, the scene which contains the Good Friday Music. Kundry, who tried unsuccessfully to seduce Parsifal in Klingsor's magic garden, is found wailing in the shrubbery, distraught with guilt, shame and saying nothing but "Service! Service!" Parsifal, the "wise fool" appears and she washes his feet, is converted and in a beautiful scene is baptized into the faith. Then they depart together to restore the Holy Grail to the assembled knights and bring life, vitality, back to them and the opera ends.
A beautiful opera by a very controversial composer. It keeps going through my head. It is the meaning of it all. Helping others. Loving those who suffer.

Bill

Anna

Bill, I always look forward to your posts and your thoughts.

I understand how hard it is to keep the guilt and shame at bay and in the past where it belongs. I know, that even when you are doing the right thing, those thoughts can creep in and run off with some of the joy in the moment. I work on that, too.

I am so glad to know you and to share your wisdom. I hope that you and your wife enjoy every day you have together.

PennyLane76

Hi Bill! Being lonely is tough, I feel lonely sometimes even with lots of people around. So many of us here, SO many would love to meet you, I know. To enjoy your company, to try to get a bit into that brilliant mind of yours.

We can also talk about how Shirley Temple sickens us. W.C. Fields for me, yuck!

Even though this is cyberspace, I hope you feel warm hugs.

Xoxoxo

wpainterw

Thanks so much, Anna. Holiday weekends are hard for me, as I suppose they are for many of us who have the so called "lonely illness". But we are far less lonely if we have such as you and so many others on this SR website. A glorious community of persons who, in one way or another, are helping one another claw their way back to happiness. And the best way to do that, I have found, is to reach out and help. To say, "You need never be alone again! We are here!" Thank you so much!

wpainterw

I can see why folks loved Shirley Temple. But sugary sentimentality and cuteness has its limits. The fascinating thing about W.C. Fields was not so much his drinking as his paranoia and battle with inanimate objects. Like the apple pie which got all mixed up with the newspapers and stuck to the golf club in "The Golf Specialist". A sort of anti-Taoism, the very reverse of "Go with the Flow", "Easy Does It!" This battle was later waged by Inspector Clouseau, that Parisian ace of detectives and paragon of justice ("Pink Pussycat", etc.)

Bill

Thirteenth

I am unsure what to post here. You're an incredible resource of knowledge, sobriety and kindness. Without knowing who I am, you have helped me just by being you. I'm glad to see you feeling a little better.

wpainterw

We have something in common! I also am not sure what to post here. Right now I'm into old movies and fancy myself a critic of sorts. Who can be depressed when watching Charlie Chaplin being contemplated by a hungry bearded fat man who visualizes him as a succulent chicken ("The Gold Rush"). And what alcoholic can resist a hoot at W.C. Fields in "The Fatal Glass of Beer" consoling a Mountie who weeps on hearing of the young man from the country who is warned by his mother never, when going to the "city", to venture into a bar and drink "the fatal glass of beer" Ruined for life but first hustled off to a Yukon rehab? Dial 911! Catch a dog sled to go to an AA meeting? (Note the dog sled towed by dogs one of which is a dachshund suspended in mid air!)
Seriously, would it not be a good idea for rehabs and hospitals to make these funny old movies available for sleepless persons in detox during the long midnight and early morning hours? Cheer them up. Get them laughing and eventually they'll settle down and get some good sound sleep. Maybe more effective than all that Xanax and Librium!

W.

Thirteenth

Sir, you are awesome.

Mountainmanbob

I agree with you Bill and ask often

God please have mercy on me (us)
According to the Bible
it is one of the most worthy of prayers

Take care of yourself, wife and dog
I work with some who don't have those

M-Bob

Dee74

A bit of Marx - Groucho, not Karl, always does me good

wpainterw

Thanks Dee. I think my favorite Groucho is his entry (in "Animal Crackers" I think) borne on a litter by four servants, as "Captain Spaulding, the African Explorer".
My English Cocker Spaniel is a Groucho fan. He has bushy Groucho eyebrows and Rudolph Valentino eyelashes ("The Sheik"!). All the lady dogs growl "No! No! Help! Help!" while inwardly they whisper, "Yes! Yes! Please Yes!"

Woof!

Bill

MythOfSisyphus

It also makes me think of The Butterfly Dream by Zhaungzi- "Once upon a time, I, Chuang Chou, dreamt I was a butterfly, fluttering hither and thither, a veritable butterfly, enjoying itself to the full of its bent, and not knowing it was Chuang Chou. Suddenly I awoke, and came to myself, the veritable Chuang Chou. Now I do not know whether it was then I dreamt I was a butterfly, or whether I am now a butterfly dreaming I am a man."

Meraviglioso

Bill, thinking of you today and sending you love and hugs. Can you and your wife get out for a bit today? A little walk or maybe just take some chairs outside to sit in the sun?

wpainterw

Thanks, Mera. We are undergoing a shortage of sun today because of a storm which is hovering off the Atlantic coast. It's a holiday but not so good for the beach. Hope you're coming along O.K. That rehab experience you had near Florence was a model for us all. So helpful for folks who are anxious about rehabs. I am firmly convinced that a very important key to recovery, perhaps the most important, is the comradeship and support of other recovering persons, whether or not AA. A group of such persons is a very powerful force. It seems to grow exponentially. The curve grows sharply upwards!
Every good wish.
Bill.

P.S. I have always been very fond of Italians. Particularly beautiful ones like in Botticelli. Used to have show dogs and had a dog handler who looked Botticelli and got lots of blue ribbons. Did the ribbons go for the dog or for the handler? (Male judge!). My favorite Botticelli is the "Magnificat" in the Uffizi.

tokidoki

Bill-
I'm so sorry to hear you're feeling lonely. I hope you've realized how many people you impact here. I always seek out your posts.
Your SR family loves you very much

And your memoirs? It'd be so great to read them!!