Good morning everyone!....or good evening!...I call this painting "under one moon"...cheers

DharmaBum50 comments on Mar 15, 2018:

Love it! Kind of like Chagall.

Amok! Amok, amok, amok, amok, amok.

DharmaBum50 comments on Mar 15, 2018:

Funny, there's a new woman in my life even as we speak. What a coincidence!

I call it Pink Lemonade.

DharmaBum50 comments on Mar 13, 2018:

My late wife was also a book artist, so I can appreciate the work that went into that. Nice.

Would You Partake?

DharmaBum50 comments on Mar 10, 2018:

In the course of my travels, I have eaten far worse things. LOL

This is interesting when other countries are affected by Nowhere Man's "Love!" ...

DharmaBum50 comments on Mar 7, 2018:

Yeah, that's what the country needs--to be run like a business. ROFL

This is apt.

DharmaBum50 comments on Mar 3, 2018:

If I end up becoming an expat again, it would be because the latter have started putting on uniforms.

Million Dollar Idea: A smoke detector with a "Just Burning Food" setting.

DharmaBum50 comments on Feb 27, 2018:

Excellent idea! I like to cook blackened catfish and have to disable the alarm every time.

Trump's State of "Affairs", The Late Show... [youtube.com]

DharmaBum50 comments on Feb 26, 2018:

OMG, this is hilarious!!!

This is so well put

DharmaBum50 comments on Feb 25, 2018:

Well put! It's a succinct verbalization of this picture, which is one of the saddest and at the same time most bizarre scenes I've ever seen portrayed. The only good part is that the lion seems not to be one of Don Jr.'s hunting trophies.

I know this has been passed around a few times but it fits soooooo well right now with the shit for ...

DharmaBum50 comments on Feb 24, 2018:

Sooooo apropos!

For those who may not have seen this a couple of years back, CBS's Sunday Morning show featured Neil...

DharmaBum50 comments on Feb 24, 2018:

Thanks for posting this. It sheds a lot of light on my ostracism in what can otherwise be a fairly liberal community (in a bluegrass sea of Biblethumpers). Even the hippies here in this town are squeaky clean, and if they're not Christian, they are "spiritual but not religious." But atheism is viewed as negatively as it is by the Christians.

Isn't that the truth!

DharmaBum50 comments on Feb 23, 2018:

Certainly true in my case!

Life is too short to take everything so seriously.

DharmaBum50 comments on Feb 23, 2018:

I didn't think you needed inspiration to be naughty. LOL

If you had to get a song lyric tattooed on your body, what would you choose?

DharmaBum50 comments on Feb 19, 2018:

And I'm the world's forgotten boy The one who's searchin', searchin' to destroy (Iggy Pop)

Hey! I'm Evelyn! I'm originally from Oklahoma and currently reside in Kansas -- attending graduate ...

DharmaBum50 comments on Feb 18, 2018:

But can you compete with Ark Encounter? Just kidding--welcome!

What do you write about?

DharmaBum50 comments on Feb 17, 2018:

Darkness mostly. My wife's death is just starting to come out in poetry. I also write about travel, which can often be somewhat more upbeat. But not always.

I'm presently working on my 7th book - a non-fiction work meant for people in grief and, just as ...

DharmaBum50 comments on Feb 17, 2018:

That book sounds wonderful. I really could have used it seven years ago when my wife died, but even now, I suppose I would still find it useful.

When I got to adulthood, this was my idea about to meet people to date: do the things I enjoy doing,...

DharmaBum50 comments on Feb 15, 2018:

I never expected to have to date again in my life, and it doesn't matter whether it's online or in person, it's *all* exhausting.

Where's your god now?

DharmaBum50 comments on Feb 15, 2018:

"Thoughts and prayers" comments are a way for congresspeople to appear like they're concerned and doing something when they don't give a shit and are doing nothing because they're bought and paid for.

One of my favorites on this lovely day..

DharmaBum50 comments on Feb 14, 2018:

Even while married, I never celebrated it.

Nailed em!

DharmaBum50 comments on Feb 14, 2018:

My sentiments exactly!

I haven't written anything in a long time.

DharmaBum50 comments on Feb 14, 2018:

Sometimes it takes a while. I've been thinking about my wife's death and my reaction to it and the hospice stay and the ash spreading for over seven years, and the poetry is just beginning to happen.

Yeee have little faith.. in finger painting. ;)

DharmaBum50 comments on Feb 13, 2018:

Little Faith is my middle name.

I can't do Facebook any more without my blood pressure rising 20 points. I love you heathens.

DharmaBum50 comments on Feb 13, 2018:

Back atcha. :)

@BikerDude50 -- Somehow, I knew you'd show up. Welcome.

DharmaBum50 comments on Feb 12, 2018:

Thanks, man. How'd you know that?

I began writing professionally in 1956 but took a break when I entered a new career as a naval ...

DharmaBum50 comments on Feb 12, 2018:

That promo is a hoot!

Changing Your Mind

DharmaBum50 comments on Feb 9, 2018:

It wasn't so much an argument or evidence presented by someone else that changed my political beliefs, but rather my own experience and observations. Believe it or not, I used to be a conservative Ayn Rand-y type. I grew up in a privileged upper middle-class household and went off to a college that catered to folks like that. When I got back home with a masters degree I couldn't use, I drove taxi for two years in Durham, NC. I saw every inch of that town while I was driving, the rich parts and the poor parts sometimes right next to each other. Most of my passengers were poor whites and poor blacks who couldn't afford their own set of wheels. Some were on welfare, but most of them had jobs--often multiple jobs--but were barely scraping by. I saw how little the capitalist system I used to glorify was benefiting them, and that began my journey leftwards.

What do you consider "better than sex?"

DharmaBum50 comments on Feb 9, 2018:

As an insomniac, I'd kill for an eight-hour sleep.

I think what surprises me most is the look of confusion on people's face when you say that you don't...

DharmaBum50 comments on Feb 9, 2018:

I occasionally house-sit at this 125-year-old log cabin that's on the side of a hill in Rockcastle County, Kentucky. It's safe to say that this is "the boonies," but that doesn't make it safe territory from the door-to-door thumpers, as I soon found out. One day, I look out the door, and there's two women out there, and it's obvious why they're there. I cut them off at the pass by saying, "Sorry, not interested, I'm an atheist." One of them screws her face up in the most cartoonish display of confusion I think I've ever seen and asks in total disbelief, "You mean we're just WORM FOOD??" I just said, "They gotta eat, too," and closed the door in their faces. Later on, I was sitting on the porch with a cold beer contemplating the sunset and that interchange and got to thinking that it's human arrogance lurking behind much of people's religious beliefs around here. They don't accept evolution because then we'd be descended from apes. There is an afterlife involving us sitting around on clouds being some sky daddy's sycophants into eternity because otherwise we'd be "worm food."

Happy Birthday to my old friend Dan Seals.

DharmaBum50 comments on Feb 9, 2018:

Lovely song, dude!

More from Neil... [youtube.com]

DharmaBum50 comments on Feb 8, 2018:

Tell it, Neil!

I want to retire abroad someday. Any advice?

DharmaBum50 comments on Feb 8, 2018:

I've been looking at Ecuador, Chile, Uruguay, and Portugal--from the standpoint of both a retiree and a political refugee. I'd like to include New Zealand in that list, but there's a whole 'nother income level involved there.

Any opinions about Trump's idea of a big military parade?

DharmaBum50 comments on Feb 7, 2018:

He needs the right outfit. Something like this.

A lot of truth here.

DharmaBum50 comments on Feb 7, 2018:

Bertrand Russell--spot on, as always.

Do you remember where you were when the Challenger exploded?

DharmaBum50 comments on Feb 7, 2018:

I was about four months into a new teaching job in Korea, and by the time it reached the newspapers there, the news was already a day or two old. It made me sad to read, but I was busy with teaching and adapting to a very different culture.

Kentucky Passes ‘Don’t Say Darwin’ Bill

DharmaBum50 comments on Feb 6, 2018:

As a Kentuckian, I am happy that this is satire. But in a state with embarrassments like the Ark Encounter, a "Don't Say Darwin" bill is entirely believable.

Got behind this guy yesterday. Welcome to the Bible Belt!

DharmaBum50 comments on Feb 6, 2018:

Just fix my damn roof, Jacob, and STFU.

I just glanced at my possibilities on SeniorMeet . WHo could lose with 10InchWizard or FunerealDeal?

DharmaBum50 comments on Feb 5, 2018:

You're on a roll!

Are you afraid of heights?

DharmaBum50 comments on Feb 5, 2018:

Yes, I am, and on one road trip out west, I had the thought that if I did the Angel's Landing hiking trail in Zion National Park, I'd cure myself of it. I'm not sure why I had that notion, but even though I completed the hike, it didn't cure me of my fear. I wonder why.

Any Birders..? If so, what last caught your eye.?

DharmaBum50 comments on Feb 5, 2018:

My brother is actually the birder in the family, but I recently went out with him to the Audubon-protected Corkscrew Swamp area in Florida and got some wonderful pictures of anhingas, limkins, and a red-shouldered hawk devouring a catch up on a high branch. I was the one who spotted the limkin, but it turned out to be a "life list" add for him. I'd post the pictures here, but I'm not sure files that large load in the comments.

How proud are you of your state?

DharmaBum50 comments on Feb 5, 2018:

Kentucky is a mixed bag. On the plus side, we have bourbon, beautiful bluegrass countryside, and a fine musical tradition. On the minus side, to the point of embarrassment, we have Mitch McConnell, Rand Paul, Matt Bevin, the Ark Encounter, and the Creation "Museum."

Am I the only person who cares nothing for football?

DharmaBum50 comments on Feb 5, 2018:

No, you aren't. I had a Marxist professor in college who said that spectator sports is "a perfect example of false solidarity," and I couldn't agree more, especially with regard to football and basketball. And yes, I know it's heresy for a Kentuckian, but that includes the University of Kentucky Wildcats.

16 yrs ago today I quit smoking so every Superbowl It's celebration time.

DharmaBum50 comments on Feb 4, 2018:

I'm celebrating what would have been my mother's 99th birthday. She made it to 96, though the last year or so wasn't pretty--dementia. I think I'll watch a fire in the woodstove instead of the Super Bowl, though. BTW, I don't smoke, and good on you for quitting!

So I decided to join a Grief Share group even though it is held at a church and is based on the ...

DharmaBum50 comments on Feb 4, 2018:

My late wife left these instructions: "Spread my ashes in Forest Lake [Wisconsin] so that everyone will know where to find me." That is what I did in 2011 with her sister and best friend. Every summer since then I go up to the family cottage, take a kayak out onto the lake, and try to get a sense of her presence there. And that is how I grieve these days. Being out in nature, knowing she's a part of it, is a lot more comforting to me than the thought that she's in a crowded fairy-tale heaven with rivers of milk. I hate milk, and so did she.

Going to Black Label Society concert next week.. can't wait. Anyone seen them?

DharmaBum50 comments on Feb 3, 2018:

Enjoy! Going with my friend Gary to hear the Black Angels (second time in a year!) in Louisville next month.

Who never was religious?

DharmaBum50 comments on Feb 2, 2018:

Me! I grew up in the Bible Belt and had to attend church and Sunday school every week until I graduated from high school, but I never thought it was anything but one big crock.

What countries have you visited, or would like to visit?

DharmaBum50 comments on Feb 2, 2018:

Let's see, I've visited: All of Western Europe, all of Eastern Europe, some of the "Stans" (Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, etc.), Russia, the Baltics, Scandinavia, most of Asia and the Subcontinent, the Maldives (learned to dive there), Sri Lanka, Australia, New Zealand, Fiji Islands, United Arab Emirates, Oman, Turkey, Egypt, Morocco, Guatemala, Belize, Honduras (including diving in the Bay Islands), Canada, Mexico, and all of the continental USA. I've lived and/or worked in: the USA, Germany, South Korea, Japan, and the United Arab Emirates. Travel bucket list: South America (specifically Ecuador and Peru), Cuba, and Laos. Considering for expat life if the USA remains under fascist rule in 2020: Ecuador, Chile, Uruguay, and Portugal.

How many places have you lived?

DharmaBum50 comments on Jan 31, 2018:

10 -- North Carolina, New York State, Berlin (actually West Berlin at the time), two cities in South Korea (Seoul and Pohang), United Arab Emirates, Japan, Wisconsin, and Kentucky (Louisville and Berea).

This would pertain to the sugar coated turd talk last night by 45.

DharmaBum50 comments on Jan 31, 2018:

That sums it up nicely!

Pizza and coffee. Breakfast of champions. Hey, don't judge.

DharmaBum50 comments on Jan 31, 2018:

Only if the pizza is cold and leftover from last night's pizza and beer.

State of the Union Drinking Game [huffingtonpost.com]

DharmaBum50 comments on Jan 30, 2018:

This is one of those nights when I'm SOOO GLAD I don't have a TV. A chair would be sticking through it in short order.... If I want to see orange tonight, I'm going to watch the window of my woodstove.

If you were asked to submit a song for a porn soundtrack, what song would you add?

DharmaBum50 comments on Jan 30, 2018:

It would depend on the movie the soundtrack were for, but if it's just soft porn with a tad bit of kink, it would have to be Velvet Underground's "Venus in Furs": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iLQzaLr1enE

Other than John Lennon's "Imagine," is there another atheist/agnostic song.

DharmaBum50 comments on Jan 30, 2018:

Let's see, and then there's the Dead Kennedys' "Religious Vomit".... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZBa6YMs-AbY

Other than John Lennon's "Imagine," is there another atheist/agnostic song.

DharmaBum50 comments on Jan 30, 2018:

You couldn't do much better than Marilyn Manson's "Fight Song": "But I'm not a slave to a god / that doesn't exist / But I'm not a slave to a world / that doesn't give a shit." Plus the song kicks ass. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k0bWRpK3A2g

I get the sense agnostics/atheists are thought of as amoral nihilists, but I want to believe that's ...

DharmaBum50 comments on Jan 30, 2018:

First off, from one Kentuckian to another, welcome! I'm with you--naturalism, humanism, etc.--but the religion that comes closest to my morality would be Buddhism.

I am curious... what are your thoughts on Buddhists?

DharmaBum50 comments on Jan 30, 2018:

My feelings about Buddhism are similar to yours, especially since there is no belief in a creator god. You can believe in one if you want, but it isn't important in the path to enlightenment, so you can be an atheist at the same time. I became familiar with the religion while I was teaching in Seoul and even practiced it to some extent while I was there. Hell, I was even married in a Buddhist temple while there, so Korean Buddhism is the sort I'm most familiar with. Each place the religion migrated to, however, it incorporated elements of earlier local religions, so as a religion, there are many different sects and variations. For example, at any Korean Buddhist temple, you will find a sub-temple to a Mountain Spirit (San-Shin), a holdover from an earlier shamanism. Although I have fond memories of my experience with Korean Buddhism, I have gravitated to a more secular form (minus karma and reincarnation) advocated by a Western former monk, Stephen Batchelor. His book "Buddhism Without Beliefs" is worth a read, explaining that agnosticism is the essence of Buddhism.

OK, here's a topic few understand, the alt-right denies, most ignore because it's not in their ...

DharmaBum50 comments on Jan 30, 2018:

The gender-related part of your post made me think of Jungian psychology, in which the anima (feminine inner personality of a man) and animus (masculine inner personality of a woman) are two aspects of the unconscious. I'm not sure if this theory has ever been used to explain gender identities, however.

Some people say that practicing gratitude is good for your health.

DharmaBum50 comments on Jan 29, 2018:

I am grateful to have been able to travel and see as much of the world as I have. I am grateful to have had the most wonderful travel buddy to accompany me on twenty-one years' worth of those trips, taken from me way too soon. I am grateful to be the human companion of the greatest dog in the world.

Transgender and Bathrooms

DharmaBum50 comments on Jan 29, 2018:

I was in Asheville, NC, shortly after North Carolina passed its ill-fated HB2 bathroom bill. I noticed during my visits to a number of South Slope craft breweries that there would be no problem at most of them because their bathrooms were not only marked as in the illustration above, but they were also one-holers. One World Brewery, because of its inclusive diversity message, also included the trans icon along with the male and female. I asked about this at several breweries, wondering if they had made a quick transition to avoid problems. No, they said, they have always been like that, mostly to avoid lines at some bathrooms and not at others. Unisex one-holers would render the bathroom "problem" a non-issue, and the Thumpers would then have to find somebody else to discriminate against.

Anyone ever have a DNA ancestry test?

DharmaBum50 comments on Jan 29, 2018:

Never had one on myself, but I had one on my dog. I found out that my very mellow border-collie mix isn't mostly border collie, but rather bulldog. It didn't specify English or American, but either way, it would account for her stubborn streak.

The past couple of years have been pretty tough for music fans.

DharmaBum50 comments on Jan 29, 2018:

Awesome version, dude!

How many folks here know who this is, and/or remember his presidency?

DharmaBum50 comments on Jan 28, 2018:

I was in junior high gym class when somebody came into the locker room and told us all that the president had been assassinated. Later on, my mother--a Republican--broke down and cried at the library, where we had gone after she picked me up at school. We watched all the TV about the assassination and funeral and then got the AP coffee table book that came out immediately afterwards. I think it was called "The Torch Is Passed." Although the man certainly had his imperfections and in some respects wasn't all that liberal, I was proud that he was our president, and even my Republican parents thought so, too. How have we come to where we are now from this?? :-(

Liberals

DharmaBum50 comments on Jan 28, 2018:

I think there's a logical fallacy involved here (a kind of straw man argument?) that evestrat touched on in an earlier comment. When our constructive criticism of America (i.e., constructive patriotism) acknowledges that the country's reality doesn't measure up to its national mythology, conservative blind patriots exaggerate this criticism to the level of hatred of the country or even treason. However, pointing out logical fallacies is out of fashion these days, especially with the group in question here....

Forced into going to church as a child

DharmaBum50 comments on Jan 28, 2018:

I grew up in the South during the 50s and 60s and was forced to attend church. It's just what parents did in that region at that time. I never bought into it and felt like an ass having to kneel down and pray to an Invisible But Omnipresent Sky-Daddy at the same time I was hearing that I was being ridiculous to speculate that there might be life on other planets. My Sunday School teachers hated having me in class because I asked too many questions they couldn't answer. "You have to have faith" never cut it as an explanation to me. But when I graduated from high school and left for college, I never set foot in a church again, except as a tourist or a wedding/funeral visitor. When my parents asked me if I was still going, they were surprised to hear that I never believed in any of it. I told them they hadn't been listening or paying attention--politely, of course, using "sir" and "ma'am" as I had been raised. :-)

Single, divorced, widowed...why does society place such importance on these titles?

DharmaBum50 comments on Jan 27, 2018:

Very interesting observation, witchymom. I don't often find myself in a social setting of this nature, but the next time I do (in March), I'll have to play with this like you did, but from the perspective of a widower. After the societally mandated grieving time of one year expired following my wife's death, I started getting asked (mostly, but not exclusively, by men), "Are you dating yet?" When I said I wasn't, men would react like "WTF is wrong with you?" Women generally reacted more sympathetically, concluding either that I hadn't found "the right one" yet or that my wife was The One True Love of My Life and that I would go to my grave without ever wanting to find anyone else. Unlike men's silent ridicule, women seemed to display a weird mixture of pity and admiration. But what would happen next time if I say I'm divorced? Or that I'm screwing every woman I meet? This could be fun.

Greetings and salutations to all out there.

DharmaBum50 comments on Jan 27, 2018:

Welcome from a Tarheel who ended up in an even harder-core part of the Bible Belt--Kentucky. I feel your pain.

Do you have wanderlust?

DharmaBum50 comments on Jan 27, 2018:

Hell, it's my middle name.

Beer drinkers

DharmaBum50 comments on Jan 27, 2018:

Here in the US, I most regularly drink American craft IPAs, and that's what I voted for here, but nothing beats a cold Pilsner Urquell from a Prague tap.

Have you ever felt depressed and singled out while single on Valentine’s Day?

DharmaBum50 comments on Jan 27, 2018:

Even when my wife was alive, we never celebrated Valentine's Day. We always figured it was a BS Hallmark-manufactured holiday, so there's nothing to miss now.

How many people here have lived overseas

DharmaBum50 comments on Jan 26, 2018:

I lived overseas for a total of sixteen years. In the early 70s, I was a grad student in Berlin. Later on, I taught English language and literature in South Korea, the UAE, and Japan over the course of fifteen years. During that time, I saw much of the rest of Asia and the Middle East, not to mention stops in Europe. Getting past culture shock can be more difficult in some places than others (like being a nonbeliever in a Muslim country, for example), but all in all, I view my time abroad as the best time of my life. On January 21st, 2017, I particularly regretted having returned to the US....

What kind of snob are you?

DharmaBum50 comments on Jan 26, 2018:

I selected "alcohol snob" because I drink only craft beers (any other kind of beer is weaselpiss), but I'm told I'm a snob in so many other ways. What comes to mind just offhand: 1) chili snob (my recipe, pinto beans on the side only); BBQ snob (eastern North Carolina); coffee snob (French press-made, no instant); and grammar snob (hell, I'm a former English teacher, so it comes naturally). :-)

What do you have out there for some good rockin tunes.

DharmaBum50 comments on Jan 26, 2018:

"We're an American Band" ... Rob Zombie version

What Is Your Favorite Genre Of Music?

DharmaBum50 comments on Jan 26, 2018:

I checked "hard rock/classic rock," but more accurate would be "hard rock/alternative." And perhaps even some blues and blues rock, too. Classic rock has been played to freaking death since the 1970s, and I can't stand it any more.

Midlife crisis?

DharmaBum50 comments on Jan 26, 2018:

I'm not sure if all of the life/career shifts I had beginning in my thirties qualify as "crises," but if they do, I've had several. After spinning my wheels for a decade on several dead-end jobs as a result of a useless masters degree in German literature, I went and got a much more employable second masters in TEFL (Teaching English as a Foreign Language) and headed off to Korea at the age of 35. It was there I met my wife (another American teacher), and we spent the next fifteen years teaching in various parts of Asia. When I was 50, we returned stateside and took up freelance careers in different aspects of the publishing industry. Sometimes I think the reverse culture shock I experienced upon my return was more severe than the shock I had anywhere I lived in Asia, but it probably doesn't qualify as a "crisis." And now in my sixties--kind of a stretch to say this still qualifies as "midlife" (LOL)--I am having to deal with being single again after the death of my wife in 2010. In some ways, I am still floundering from that crisis, but I am trying hard to find and enjoy the positive aspects of my sudden solitude.

Best fictional TV show that features Atheism?

DharmaBum50 comments on Jan 26, 2018:

I don't watch any mainstream TV per se, but the Netflix series "Godless" has been pretty good so far. Frank Griffin's monologue in the third episode (I think) that gives the series its name is awesome.

What is the most romantic spot to which you have ever been?

DharmaBum50 comments on Jan 26, 2018:

Had to be the overnight trip on a local fishing boat taking us to Komodo Island from Flores in Indonesia. We anchored off an uninhabited islet during a beautiful sunset. During the afterglow, fruit bats flew from the islet to Flores, so many of them they almost blocked out the light. Afterwards, the fisherman fixed us dinner (a fresh local catch, of course), and we all shared a bottle of wine.

How often do you pay attention to your neighbors?

DharmaBum50 comments on Jan 25, 2018:

As little as possible. It's nice that the two women who live on either side of me are in their 90s and deaf as posts, so I crank up my music super loud with no repercussions. It's also fitting that my two big living-room windows face out towards the woods on the backside of the house, meaning that the ass-end of the house is facing the street--kinda like mooning them all. And when you get down to it, I'm pretty much mooning the whole damn Bible-bangin' town.

Truth be told.... right here..

DharmaBum50 comments on Jan 25, 2018:

It very well could happen that if I ever become involved again, she would leave because it's impossible to text me--I'm a proud Luddite who has no smartphone, and I don't aim to change that.

How toxic is your work environment ?

DharmaBum50 comments on Jan 24, 2018:

I work for myself these days, so my work environment is only as toxic as I make it. LOL Seriously, though, I've worked with some nasty people along the line, and that's part of the reason I'm now self-employed. Good luck in your situation.

Is there a particular spice or seasoning you just can’t do without in your meals?

DharmaBum50 comments on Jan 23, 2018:

A lot of the food I cook is hot--Cajun, Mexican, Thai, Indian, and Korean chief among the spicy cuisines I like--so I suppose it would be a hot red chile or pepper of some sort.

Has anybody out there ever experienced hallucinations without the influence of drugs or alcohol.

DharmaBum50 comments on Jan 22, 2018:

I'm still trying to convince myself that the Mango Mussolini currently residing in our White House is an hallucination.

Who here has an obsession with different religions and the reasons why they came to be?

DharmaBum50 comments on Jan 22, 2018:

I've been interested in the mythology behind world religions since I studied Joseph Campbell while writing my first masters thesis. Later on in my life, while traveling abroad, this earlier interest enriched my experience of the cultures in which I found myself. So it's not an obsession, just a curiosity about the big wide world out there, of which people's religious beliefs are a part--for better or worse.

Happily single—or not?

DharmaBum50 comments on Jan 21, 2018:

Both, actually. I suddenly found myself single seven years ago at the death of my wife, so this situation was not my choice. However, over that seven years, I have not only become accustomed to the freedom my single status affords, but I've come to embrace it. Sure, I wouldn't mind a traveling buddy for my road trips, and getting laid occasionally might be nice, but I wonder if it's worth giving up the freedom. The hole in my life has a specific shape to it, it seems.

Do you skirt around the issue of out right saying you’re an atheist when people start talking ...

DharmaBum50 comments on Jan 21, 2018:

Most people know where I stand, so the issue doesn't come up very often. However, when it does, I cut right to the chase just to minimize the BS.

What makes you more likely to live to 100?

DharmaBum50 comments on Jan 21, 2018:

Both of my parents lived until 96, so I have the longevity thing going on--if I really wanted to live that long. However, they led healthier lifestyles than I do, though my sheer orneriness could put me well past 100.

Best Advice on the "Meaning of Life"?

DharmaBum50 comments on Jan 12, 2018:

"Freedom is what you do with what's been done to you." -- J.-P. Sartre

What song would you want played for your funeral?

DharmaBum50 comments on Jan 11, 2018:

The angel and heaven references notwithstanding, I'd definitely go with John Prine's "Please Don't Bury Me." And it would be at a memorial celebration or wake--if any of my drinking buddies manage to outlast me. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DEhqzOeJnto

Does it matter anymore who makes the first move?

DharmaBum50 comments on Jan 8, 2018:

I had hoped never to have to think about this again, at least not insofar as it concerned me. But here I am, single in my 60s, and I have no frikkin' idea. I guess what happened recently at the Green Parrot, a Key West pub, is emblematic of my approach (or lack of one) to the problem. I was drinking with this rather engaging sous-chef sitting next to me, and on my other side was a nice-looking woman (probably in her 50s) who had come in with a crowd but was now drinking wine by herself. I thought about saying something to her, but I'm pretty shy and didn't want to seem like a jackass, so I didn't say anything to her, and she finally finished her wine and left. The sous-chef told me she had been sneaking glances at me, but there could be all sorts of reasons for that. The bottom line is that I'm shy, never figured I'd be in this position again, and have no idea what to do. Fortunately, given all this, I'm OK with my own company.

If you could travel anywhere for free right now where would you go?

DharmaBum50 comments on Jan 7, 2018:

Machu Picchu is at the top of my bucket list.

Food—what’s your story?

DharmaBum50 comments on Jan 7, 2018:

I learned to cook in grad school--it was either that or fast food every day. I lived in this boarding house with a group of fellow grad students who all got along very well, and we ended up forming a kind of dinner club, spurring us all on to find new and interesting recipes. My chili and Brunswick stew recipes have evolved from that time. Years later, I moved to various parts of Asia and the Middle East and learned many of the cuisines of the countries we visited or worked in--Korean, Thai, Indian, and Lebanese are among those I learned to do quite well. Since my wife's death, there's no longer much point in preparing a seven-course Indian dinner, for example, but after a few years of culinary "down time," I'm starting to get back into it.

Just got a call from my 90 yr old mother.

DharmaBum50 comments on Jan 6, 2018:

I had a horrible relationship with my mother all my life, but at the end of hers, she forgot about it all because of the increasing dementia. We still had some conflicts when I went to see her, but I let them slide. I figured, WTF, she's 96 and either doesn't remember or has completely revised our history, making any recitation of it pointless. I don't know how cognizant your mother is, but perhaps you should do the same.

Hi, are there any Sam Harris fans here?

DharmaBum50 comments on Jan 6, 2018:

I'm a total Sam Harris fan, have all his books--but Philly is 650-mile drive from where I live in Kentucky. Ask him if he's coming to Lexington. LOL

Who here was never religious?

DharmaBum50 comments on Jan 6, 2018:

My mother was a Baptist, and my father was a Presbyterian, and they compromised by going to a Congregationalist church that ended up joining the UCC. I never believed any of it--not even when I was a toddler--but had to attend every Sunday until the end of high school. I felt like a jackass praying to an invisible sky daddy and was furious when I had to lie and become confirmed at the age of 13. Sunday school teachers dreaded having me in their classes because I was always asking questions they couldn't answer, and it was very clear to them I thought the whole thing was a total crock.

Badly describe your hobby.

DharmaBum50 comments on Jan 5, 2018:

I take a little black box with holes, buttons, and dials in it out into nature, aim it at something and push a button. If I do a good job turning the dials, enough light comes into the hole and makes an image that may be somewhat close to what I aim the box at. When I'm done with my first hobby, I come back home and enjoy the fruits of my second hobby. I put a bunch of grains and water in a tank and let them go bad for a while. When it's gone properly bad, I bottle the liquid, let it go even more bad and then drink it.

anybody in the line of fire of the "bomb cyclone"moving up the east coast?

DharmaBum50 comments on Jan 3, 2018:

I think I'm good in Kentucky. But I'm wondering about my folks back home in NC.

Just for shits and giggles, I went to a christian discussion page and was laughing at all the ...

DharmaBum50 comments on Jan 2, 2018:

Welcome! I see you're in LA. Be happy you have to go online to hear this nonsense. I'm in Kentucky--home of the Creation "Museum" and Ark Encounter theme park--and all I have to do is go to the supermarket.

What has been the dumbest religious comment/response/statement you have ever heard personally?

DharmaBum50 comments on Jan 2, 2018:

There's stiff competition in this category, but the ones that come to top of the list for me are "She's in a better place now" or "God needed another angel" in reference to my wife dying at the age of 52. I just want to take a baseball bat to these people when I hear this shit.

Check out the latest fashion of satanic sports wear.

DharmaBum50 comments on Jan 2, 2018:

I love it!!

Living single? Loneliness or freedom?

DharmaBum50 comments on Jan 1, 2018:

Both, actually. As a widower, I obviously feel some degree of loneliness, but it is no longer the sort that tears you up inside, the sort I felt for the first several years after my wife's death. I am not lonely because there is no woman in my life; I am lonely because *that specific woman* is no longer in my life. I won't rule out becoming involved again, but the longer I am single, the less likely it becomes as I come to appreciate my freedom more by the day.

Are there any New Year traditions that you celebrate?

DharmaBum50 comments on Jan 1, 2018:

I traditionally get hammered on New Years Eve, this year trying to keep warm in front of the woodstove. And like you, I'm a Southerner, so today I'm fixing a pork roast, hoppin' John, collard greens, and cornbread.