The dreaded question - "What have you been doing ? "

That was interesting. I very much doubt I will emulate her. The longest living known ancestor I
have known of was a brother of my maternal grandfather who lived to 102.

102 is quite something.
Both my granddads died before I was born. Both had cancer: colon and lungs, respectively.
One grandma died at 82, the other one is 85 and still going strongā€¦ well not quite, because diabetes has messed up her legs and she can hardly walk anymore. But she reads without glasses, a rare feat !

But there is a saying: if you cannot add years to your life, try to add life to your years.
What do you think about this proverb?

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I think the proverb is good but not always easy to do.

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Do you have a favorite proverb? Or a weird one (there are plenty of weird proverbs too I guess).

Iā€™m not really into proverbs . I find them difficult to comprehend , but maybe ā€˜curiosity killed the catā€™.

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Is that a warning to me, because I ask too many questions ?? :smile:
If I go down, Iā€™ll go down with a bang babyā€¦

Here is my favorite by Enya.

Iā€™ve got

which I bought for my wife. I have not played it since she died though.

If you wish, we will avoid talking about Enya in the future. I didnā€™t know you had painful memoriesā€¦

Iā€™ve been reading some famous last words of various people. Check this one out:

Murderer James W. Rodgers was put in front of a firing squad in Utah and asked if he had a last request. He replied, ā€œBring me a bullet-proof vest.ā€

:smile:

Here is the page. Do you have a favorite??

  1. Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, who wrote the Sherlock Holmes stories, died at age 71 in his garden. He turned to his wife and said, ā€œYou are wonderful,ā€ then clutched his chest and died.

  2. Football coach Vince Lombardi died of cancer in 1970. As he died, Lombardi turned to his wife Marie and said, ā€œHappy anniversary. I love you.ā€

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Those are beautiful last words. I donā€™t know if my symptoms will ever allow me to get married or have a girlfriend again, but I certainly wish to tell that woman such declarations before I pass.

Actually this website is a treasure trove of interesting articles:

What are your website bookmarks? Apart from politics which is not my forteā€¦

They are mainly mental health and genealogy ones with a few political ones .I tend to stick mainly to a very limited set of sites though, or at least I have tabs permanently open for a limited set of sites.

Me too, mainly mental health, then some local news page and mental floss, the one I told you about before.

Since we recently talked about dancing, here is a song I am in love with. The dancers arenā€™t too shabby either :blush:

I remember singing that song at school. The dancing was good.

Did you take music classes in school?

I remember we had an obnoxious music teacher, she would play a cassette and everybody would have listen in perfect silence otherwise she would throw a tantrum. We also took music history classes, those have really opened my eyes to the beauty of old music: baroque, classical, romanticā€¦

We had singing classes where we sang songs, but didnā€™t have a class where we played musical instruments . I also have hazy memories of lessons where the prep school headmaster would play classic music on the record player.
We didnā€™t go into the history of music. My knowledge of classical music is appallingly bad.

What was your favorite subject in school?
Mine were probably history in middle school and physics in high school.
I wasnā€™t bad at French either :blush:

I guess history and English. I started doing French for A levels but dropped it after a year, by that time I was getting ill although the first hospitalisation wouldnā€™t occur till the next year.
As with the history the first bout of ECT really did a number on my French knowledge.

There is a French proverb which really strikes home:
ā€œChacun voit midi Ć  sa porteā€ (Every person sees noon before their doorstep).
It means everybody is looking at themselves most of the time, is concerned with their interests, and is subjective about all matters in general.

I guess dialogue is the only way to challenge oneā€™s predefined ideas and self-centered thoughtsā€¦

This dialogue weā€™re having, for example. I used to believe my illness is probably the worst, but now Iā€™m not so sure anymore. Iā€™ve had a few epiphanies since opening this thread. Have you had an epiphany too? If so, care to tell me what it is? :grinning:

No epiphanies that I can think of. I donā€™t think my illness is the worst. Itā€™s probably at the mild end of severe.

If I were to compare our illnesses (even though I shouldnā€™t, because comparing oneself to others can be a source of misfortune), I would say: I am better equipped for social interaction, while you seem better equipped for independent living. Neither of us can hold down a job right now (age difference aside). Whoā€™s better off? I donā€™t knowā€¦ you seem to be bothered by your issues just like I seem to be bothered by mine. So itā€™s a stalemate :slight_smile:

So you said you liked English in school. Who was your favorite English author (writer, poetā€¦ anything) during those times? And who is your favorite English author now?

My favorite English writer is probably Sir Arthur Conan Doyle or Agatha Christie. I admit my knowledge of English literature is far from complete: Iā€™ve read some Shakespeare, Charles Dickens, Thomas Hardy, BrontĆ« sistersā€¦ thatā€™s about it.