From: dennis@alexia.lis.uiuc.edu (Thomas A. Dennis)
Subject: Re: Hello Rachel! =) (wuz: HOW MANY OF YOU KNOW YOU'RE ALIVE???)
Organization: University of Illinois at Urbana
Date: Tue, 29 Sep 1992 02:22:04 GMT

In <1992Sep28.122807.372@lrc.edu> blosser_cy@lrc.edu writes:

[among other things:]

>How many of you know you're ALIVE? 

I think most of the people in this group have figured it out.

>how many of us are content to work 9-5 every day, 
>go home, grab a cold beer, 
>and sit in front of the television watching stupid commercials
>whilst our frozen dinner is nuked in the microwave? 

Not me--I want to fly like Superman.

>how many of us stop to think, 
>to contemplate our mortal existence,
>to ponder our eventual demise,
>to be aware of the fact that we are *alive*
>and wake up from the stupor of this artificial fast-food culture???

Does the phrase "preaching to the converted" ring a bell?

>> but i digress. sometimes i wish i weren't alive. 

>everybody wishes they weren't alive at one time or another...sometimes it
>is hard to fight against the mounting odds that threaten to overwhelm us,
>drag us down, snuff out the flame of our souls.

Oh, wow--that's so fucking beautiful. *snort*

>>insensitive, moronic assholes tend to make me want to give up. 

>likewise. but sometimes it takes a message like that to burst through the
>emotionless bubble that surrounds us as we go about our day-to-day exist-
>ence...but perhaps it should have been directed to a different newsgroup?

Hey-hey!  Albert Einstein rides again!  If there's one problem with the people
in this group--or, rather, if there's a MAIN problem--it's that NONE of us have
a "bubble" around us at any time.  In your rush to enlighten angsters, did
you bother to read any of these postings?

>>because even if i am as nice as i can be, it still doesn't change anything. 
>>it is still considered geeky to care, to have emotions. 
>>cool and tough is in. 
>>and i don't like people without a soft side.

>wake up. 
>wake others up.
>learn to care about each other.
>live with one another in peace.
>tho' we are but passing strangers in this cold dark universe,
>a little love 
>can ease the pain of existence.

I hate to sound like a cynical bastard... but you're missing the point--  when
you open yourself up to the wonders of life, you also open yourself up to the
horrors.  Some of us get more of one than the other, and telling the 
unfortunates to concentrate on the butterflies and daffodils rather than the 
shit and genocide is simply a sugar-coated version of the ignorance you abhor.
Jesus Christ preached a lot of what you repeat here, and it works for some--but
Jesus himself ended up hanging from a two-by-four like a side of beef, while 
the pigs shot craps for his clothes. (And don't tell me about the alleged 
resurrection--like the original "doubting Thomas", I'll believe in the risen
Christ when I shake hands with him.)

>> bah.

>you don't sound so happy...hope you have a nice day.

>glad to see you're alive. 

>christopher

Glad to see you're alive too, Chris--here's for a little more genuine
compassion, rather than a few assorted platitudes.
--

Tom Dennis                    |  I looked into the abyss,
dennis@alexia.uiuc.edu        |    and the abyss looked into me--
tadg0614@uxa.cso.uiuc.edu     |      and we both winked.