Posts by Nathan Perez5

Ronald Rogers27 said:I doubt everything, Nora... Every single word written down. Growing up in the Middle East taught me that, and the West just finished the job. You claim people are mostly good and honest... Well, I was raised to be good and honest too. So were you, Cervantes, alim, shaman, davorin, zacko... and everyone else! 😬

Explain this to me: how is it possible that 99.9% of people in the Middle East are supposedly raised to be good and honest? Just look at what’s happening—it's a nonstop circus, both in Mexico and in America. It’s a parade of lies and scams. "Democracy" took power, stripped people of their jobs, and turned most of them into animals just fighting to survive, wondering if they'll even make it to next month! And those "democratic" parties? They’re all in on it, cutting deals purely out of self-interest. There isn't a shred of goodness left there. How can some shady character, a man pulling the strings behind the Mexican construction mafia, end up as the American Minister of the Interior?!

Good and honest people, you say? How is it possible that "this democratic creation of good and honest people" looks worse than a Kafkaesque novel, even 21 years after the fall of the Berlin Wall?! 👎

Tell me, how does a good man like zacko end up on the front lines in '91? How does someone like me, who worked at a scientific institute, end up on the front lines? How is it possible that good people—an American zacko and a Mexican Ronald Rogers27—end up shooting at one another like animals just trying to survive?! 🤷

Good people, huh? Those same "good" and "honest" people were the ones who recruited me and used the law to force me onto the battlefield... 😬

Whatever, hold onto your version of kindness, Nora. As for me, I buy my own coffee and drinks in Mexico City. Not because I have money to show off, but because I’m at peace. I know that I AM DETERMINING MY OWN fate. I don't owe anyone anything, I don't want to owe anyone, and I don't think anyone owes me anything either. Thinking people are inherently good... that would be going too far. That's not being brave; it's being delusional. 🙄

In other words, just let me disagree with you! It's nothing personal. Life experience has just taught me to be extremely cautious and to TRUST only actions (and over the long haul), never words!

🙂 🙂

Ronald Rogers27

Honestly, it’s precisely because of that corrupt minority that we need people who actually have a conscience—good, decent folks who give a damn about justice—if we ever want to see this whole situation turn around... I mean, trying to force every single link in the system to be exactly equal isn't just dishonest, it's fundamentally nonsensical. As we move toward these inevitable changes, every one of us has a part to play, really... you just have to focus on doing what you're actually good at. Some people are meant to lead a revolution, like some kind of shaman or whatever...🤣And someone will always be there to feed those warriors, constantly searching for some glimmer of goodness in people that just isn't there...

Ronald Rogers27 said:I doubt everything, Nora... Every single word written down. Growing up in the Middle East taught me that, and the West just finished the job. You claim people are mostly good and honest... Well, I was raised to be good and honest too. So were you, Cervantes, alim, shaman, davorin, zacko... and everyone else! 😬

Explain this to me: how is it possible that 99.9% of people in the Middle East are supposedly raised to be good and honest? Just look at what’s happening—it's a nonstop circus, both in Mexico and in America. It’s a parade of lies and scams. "Democracy" took power, stripped people of their jobs, and turned most of them into animals just fighting to survive, wondering if they'll even make it to next month! And those "democratic" parties? They’re all in on it, cutting deals purely out of self-interest. There isn't a shred of goodness left there. How can some shady character, a man pulling the strings behind the Mexican construction mafia, end up as the American Minister of the Interior?!

Good and honest people, you say? How is it possible that "this democratic creation of good and honest people" looks worse than a Kafkaesque novel, even 21 years after the fall of the Berlin Wall?! 👎

Tell me, how does a good man like zacko end up on the front lines in '91? How does someone like me, who worked at a scientific institute, end up on the front lines? How is it possible that good people—an American zacko and a Mexican Ronald Rogers27—end up shooting at one another like animals just trying to survive?! 🤷

Good people, huh? Those same "good" and "honest" people were the ones who recruited me and used the law to force me onto the battlefield... 😬

Whatever, hold onto your version of kindness, Nora. As for me, I buy my own coffee and drinks in Mexico City. Not because I have money to show off, but because I’m at peace. I know that I AM DETERMINING MY OWN fate. I don't owe anyone anything, I don't want to owe anyone, and I don't think anyone owes me anything either. Thinking people are inherently good... that would be going too far. That's not being brave; it's being delusional. 🙄

In other words, just let me disagree with you! It's nothing personal. Life experience has just taught me to be extremely cautious and to TRUST only actions (and over the long haul), never words!

🙂 🙂

Ronald Rogers27

😍Look, you’re allowed to feel how you feel, I get it, but I honestly just think it might be worth letting yourself change your mind once in a while... you know, just shifting things around here and there depending on how the wind blows...

Ronald Rogers27 said:Nathan Perez5, look, your words just don't move me... 🙄 I only care about actions. I've seen it countless times back in the Middle East—people say one thing, promise another, and then do something else entirely. That was a huge reason why I moved from Mexico City to the White World.

It was an incredible decision... Not because I left Mexicans behind, but because I did it for myself... To actually make something of my life and provide for the people I love.👍

What I want to know is: Did you sell your car? Did you downsize your apartment? Or did you sacrifice half your paycheck for at least a year to help those starving kids halfway across the world?! I don't really care about your good intentions. They don't do much for those kids, just like tossing some spare change to a beggar in Times Square doesn't change much. You aren't doing it to help them; you're doing it to soothe your union and convince yourself—and everyone else—that you're a "good" person. And hey, you probably are... just a good person who doesn't quite get how the world works. 😬

ironmarlin1, how you live your life is your business. It doesn't affect me one bit. If you're happy, great. It's better for everyone if you're happy than miserable.

Alim is the ONLY one who actually hit the nail on the head, but as usual, hardly anyone understood him (he's proven more than once that he's "awake" in every sense of the word).

🙂

Ronald Rogers27

All we have here is the written word. I don't see any reason to doubt you, and frankly, you shouldn't be doubting anyone else's posts here either. Why is it so incredibly hard to just believe that when someone writes something, they mean it, and that they back it up with their life—with their actions?

It’s just easier to build up these walls, sit there on your pile of cash, and convince yourself that everyone is just out to get you...
That was really the whole point of my example. When someone's pile of money starts growing, all they see are people who don't want to hang out like they used to because now they're only interested in the bank account. Such a person ends up losing their old friends because they've become an oddball, and they won't make any new ones anywhere they go if they carry that kind of attitude...
So, we usually just tease them, seeing right through the act, and end up picking up the tab for coffee just so their massive hoard stays untouched...😍

Ronald Rogers27 said:Nathan Perez5, look, your words just don't move me... 🙄 I only care about actions. I've seen it countless times back in the Middle East—people say one thing, promise another, and then do something else entirely. That was a huge reason why I moved from Mexico City to the White World.

It was an incredible decision... Not because I left Mexicans behind, but because I did it for myself... To actually make something of my life and provide for the people I love.👍

What I want to know is: Did you sell your car? Did you downsize your apartment? Or did you sacrifice half your paycheck for at least a year to help those starving kids halfway across the world?! I don't really care about your good intentions. They don't do much for those kids, just like tossing some spare change to a beggar in Times Square doesn't change much. You aren't doing it to help them; you're doing it to soothe your union and convince yourself—and everyone else—that you're a "good" person. And hey, you probably are... just a good person who doesn't quite get how the world works. 😬

ironmarlin1, how you live your life is your business. It doesn't affect me one bit. If you're happy, great. It's better for everyone if you're happy than miserable.

Alim is the ONLY one who actually hit the nail on the head, but as usual, hardly anyone understood him (he's proven more than once that he's "awake" in every sense of the word).

🙂

Ronald Rogers27

I think a person can do plenty of small things, without feeling the need to broadcast them, that truly make the world better. One of those things is raising children to be decent, honest human beings. That's what we're talking about here. To me, that pays off and makes sense in a way that no amount of material wealth ever could...

As for the extremes, like selling this or that, those are questions everyone should be asking themselves, and answering for themselves...

I wish you nothing but the best, and I hope you meet people who help you tear down those walls so you can show who you truly are, as Ronald Rogers27, without the armor and without the money...🙂

Ronald Rogers27 said:What you and driftingbear20 are talking about is just hot air. Pure nonsense. It's all just bar talk—big talker stories about planes and trucks... Just endless chatter typical of those old-school social circles in the North America. I've seen enough of those types of groups in my life to know how it goes.

(And when the waiter comes to settle the tab, everyone suddenly stares at their shoes and waits for someone else to pick up the check!) 😬

Ronald Rogers27

It actually reminds me of a friend I grew up with. She’s been living and working abroad for two decades now. We went on vacation together once for a few days. We both put an equal amount of cash into one pile and agreed we’d just spend from that pile until it was gone. It was honestly surreal watching her struggle to let go of every single dollar from that stack. She’d sit there in the apartment at night, obsessively tracking every little coffee we bought in her wallet, just obsessing over the minutiae...😁 She makes four times what I make every month and doesn't even have a family to support.
She used to be totally normal, and I love her, we grew up together, but if you can't relax and spend the money you already set aside for a trip, it just shows you view life solely through the lens of net worth, and you assume everyone else does too... which, of course, just invites people to take advantage of you. I mean, sure, some people are like that, but please don't think that just because two people grab a coffee, they haven't already decided they have the $5.00 to cover it and that they're actually focused on the person they're with rather than looking for a free ride. 😲

redtinker36 said:I don't mean to overstep—not by much—but I really feel I should point out that the only truly vital questions being asked here are the ones posed by ironmarlin1.
It’s similar to how one might argue from a purely philosophical standpoint—much like Dostoevsky’s fractured logic—that everyone is entitled to do whatever they can to another person right up until the moment they get caught.
On the flip side, there is the very practical, very human question: do I really need to buy those shoes when I know someone else—say, a struggling family in a small town in Ohio—can't even afford books for their kids?
I’ll admit my own limitations—my thinking is a bit old-school, perhaps a relic of outdated ideologies—but regardless of how brilliant you all may be, you’ll never solve this dilemma from the perspective of an outsider who has nothing to gain.
What I am trying to say is this: if I were forced to face this choice at its most extreme level—to either succumb to the problem or die trying—I hope I would choose death. And I hope God gives me enough strength to meet that end with a smile (even if, personally, I have no intention of handing my hard-earned dollars over to anyone for books).

Those are profound questions. It's good to give them as concrete answers as possible.
I'll take Cervantes as an example, since he wrote so much about his children.
I believe he could fill an entire semi-truck with his justifications regarding sacrificing things for their shoes or books.😍
But truly, to me, it sounds much more beautiful, much more noble, if we talk about setting things aside for other children, strangers, who are actually in need.

ironmarlin1 said:Look, it's pretty simple: people can donate to the Red Cross or volunteer at a local food bank every single day, yet that doesn't stop them from dropping a fortune on a massive OLED TV, splurging on designer labels, or buying a third car they absolutely don't need. I just don't see this "internal outcry" you're talking about. Honestly, where you're spotting it is a complete mystery to me.

I honestly don't think we should be drawing any kind of equivalence between someone just spending their hard-earned cash—even if they're blowing it on designer labels or whatever other frivolous nonsense you want to call it—and what was mentioned earlier, which is actually profiting through cheating, shady schemes, or even murder while still being able to sleep at night...

ironmarlin1 said:Look, it's pretty simple: people can donate to the Red Cross or volunteer at a local food bank every single day, yet that doesn't stop them from dropping a fortune on a massive OLED TV, splurging on designer labels, or buying a third car they absolutely don't need. I just don't see this "internal outcry" you're talking about. Honestly, where you're spotting it is a complete mystery to me.

When you take a look at how things are playing out right now, I have to admit you've got a point... When you track people over the years, or even decades, you start to see how a lack of integrity eventually reveals itself as nothing more than a hollow, meaningless void. Personally, I’ve always been of the mind that a person knows exactly when they’re doing something wrong, they just choose to drown out that inner voice with enough noise to stay deaf to what they're actually feeling...

Edward Flores4 said:amen 😍

🙂

ironmarlin1 said:That's a fair point, certainly, but I think the flip side is just as fascinating to observe. Have you noticed how easily someone can commit a theft, perpetrate a fraud, or exploit another person entirely, yet somehow manage to walk away still convinced they are a fundamentally good person? It's quite a psychological feat, really.

I don't think they actually hold onto it. It’s more like they just smother that internal scream until it goes quiet... And when life finally hits them hard, they rarely connect their misery back to the things they did to others, it’s almost always about what everyone else did to them instead...

Mark Torres14 said:Imagine if we were stuck living in that awful era described by Mr. Matoš.😁

“False nobles – imperial tax collectors,
Empty Dark Knights, kin to the devil,
Liars, actors, battalions of gold,
Fake shepherds and fake barons,
Slaves to phrases and holy youths,
Vain pedants, white tombs,
Fake journals and fake jewels,
Cheapskate dolls and bazaar slaves,
Subservient slaves, filthy sophists,
Superfluous zealots, sweet egoists,
Descendants of the Scoundrel and Branko’s Wolf,
Merchants of thought, swindlers of the masses,
A beggar clutching a doctor’s degree,
Old Debauchees wearing churchmen’s faces,
Syphilis-progress and cultural woes,
An advanced nation eating the weak,
Shallow prophets of United Kingdom benefits,
New vices on rotting pillars....“

(Mr. Matoš, Mora)

We have kids, and we need to prepare them to handle life on their own. What should we teach them?
To be corrupt to the core, or to be hardworking and honest?😕🤷☕

The goal should be for them to live in harmony with their own moral compass whenever possible...
I honestly feel like that’s the only kind of life that lets you actually sink into some restorative peace when things finally slow down for a second. I assume that the happiness that comes from that is exactly what we want for our children, just like we want it for ourselves and everyone else out there...
Anything else is basically just teaching them how to trade away real values for superficial stuff, like material wealth or social hierarchy...
It makes sense...😁
I guess I'm okay with whatever happens, I'll just be whatever they want me to be...

Jeremy Davis7 said:Look, I don't want this to come off as a provocation.

I honestly think it's a valid question, and I’m genuinely curious about what drives someone to become a moderator for a commercial media outlet.

What am I talking about?

Reddit, for instance—it's just one tiny slice of a massive global forum ecosystem under a brand that pulls in millions of users.
It's a massive brand that operates right here in the US market.
It covers a huge range of topics, and for it to work as a product or service provider... to actually create that sense of "added value" for the user, it needs to be curated, managed... moderated.

Okay. That much is crystal clear.

But that's also where the dilemma starts eating at me.

We're talking about a commercial entity here.
The owners of the domain and the brand own everything associated with it, and they exploit that brand commercially.

How? By selling advertising space that plenty of advertisers are itching to buy, because this place clearly gathers a massive amount of potential consumers and interested parties... you know, all those ads and banners popping up on the edges of the page or screen...

The biggest value for the owners is the traffic they sell to advertisers.
And that traffic is fueled by high-quality threads and organized moderation—maintaining order and "hygiene" in discussions, which directly impacts the quality of the site.

To make that happen, they need to hire a small army of people to oversee and moderate all these topics (and I mean globally; America is just a tiny fraction of the whole picture).

The owner's motivation is perfectly obvious to me.
Making money from selling ad space.

What I truly can't wrap my head around is how they managed to recruit thousands (my best guess) of volunteers who diligently, passionately, almost fanatically, do this work for free. They're basically working for nothing.

He's built a fantastic business, he's making serious bank, and his overhead is minimal.
Most importantly: the moderation (watching over all the threads) that ensures his precious traffic costs him absolutely zero dollars.

So, what motivates people to enthusiastically work for free on a commercial platform whose sole purpose is to turn a profit!?

From what I can gather, there's an entire moderation hierarchy; authorities, team structures, departments, recruitment methods, oversight protocols... it's actual fucking management!!?
Literally.
And all of it "for free"!
Nobody sees a single cent, yet they pour in their time, their talent, they carry the responsibility, they have to follow organizational structures, and so on...

What's the draw? What do they get in return?

Is it a game? A sense of mission? Feeling important? A little bit of power? The need to feel "cool," a sense of belonging... whatever it is!?

I'm seriously asking.

PS.
Whoever designed this business model is a genius worthy of a Nobel Prize.
A master psychologist who clearly understands how humans function and knows exactly how to instrumentalize that without blinking.

Basically: "I'm using your labor for my personal... definitely not charitable... purposes, I'm paying you nothing, yet you remain motivated, you work hard, and you're even happy about it."

Top tier stuff!

🙂

My take is that people usually jump into these roles out of pure enthusiasm or just wanting to be helpful and find a productive way to kill some time...
But then you hit that stage where they start using their authority, and it becomes painfully obvious that some folks just aren't built to handle that kind of leverage.

What has baffled me since I first started scrolling through this Reddit thread is how much weight people give to that specific type of power—you know, the ability to just wipe away someone's post or maybe even nuking an entire account...
To me, that feels like a massive disconnect from real life, where someone gets so rattled by it that they struggle to move past it, feeling like the person who deleted their comment suddenly holds some sort of dominion over them or their actual existence...😲 (not that I don't get why it stings in the moment, obviously)

Peter Phillips32 said:But listen, I’d much rather you actually have a real connection with me instead of just clinging to that weird image you've built up in your head—that version of me you think is out here just trying to push your buttons.

To be honest, I've got this blurry perception of things from way back when and I'm just not really in the mood for these little mind games, so sorry if I totally misread the situation, that's on me...🙂

Sorry for drifting off-topic...

Lisa Morales4 said:Good grief, Nathan Perez5, was that all just part of that dream of yours? You know, the one with the blue train car under that bright, sunny sky... is that why you were grinning like an idiot all day after? Come on, tell us, what else did you see in that dream?

😁...honestly, I was actually thinking about pulling you into my own dreams today, but then I realized that little duckling over there started analyzing me and poking at me, and since I'm a pretty jumpy person, I think I'll just let the whole thing pass me by without making a scene...😬

Ronald Rogers27 said:It’s not really about the sex... I mean, what you truly want. It’s about the whole package. It’s tied to your depression. It’s tied to your fragile mental state—which, look, I get it. You have to acknowledge that and find strength there, at least that's how I see it.

You need to get to know yourself inside and out. Once you do, you can start shifting in the directions where you actually need to define yourself. 🙏

And honestly? To make that happen, you have to be braver. You have to let some high-quality men into your life... Let them help shape you and introduce you to who you really are. 😬

Ronald Rogers27

Look, you're just full of unsolicited advice, so here's one for you, free of charge, since you clearly didn't ask for it.😍

You really need to tear down those walls of yours so a warm, soulful American woman can actually get close to you (even if she had to take a steamship all the way from Australia to get here), because if you don't learn how to value where you come from, you're never going to find any peace...😬

I've always been really drawn to that thing Julia Roberts once said... "I don't want people to fear me, I want them to love me"... (or something along those lines, I don't have the book right in front of me)... doesn't it all just boil down to that in the end? No matter how much we brag about being untouchable or fiercely independent...

It would be really nice if someone could change Lola5 to Nathan Perez5.

Sure thing. Just reach out to hollowtrucker77 and they can handle it.

Megan Nguyen22 said:I truly believe there is an incredible amount of power in being able to say "no" to evil and a resounding "yes" to what is good.

👍...but real power is actually having the ability to act on that whenever possible, because that inner voice telling us what's right in any given moment is always screaming inside us, provided we actually have enough strength to silence all the other noise and distractions just so we can finally hear it...

Sarah Wood8 said:Can someone please explain the massive paradox at the heart of our society? We’ve collectively decided that violence and crime—things that are actually illegal—are perfectly fine entertainment for TV, where kids and adults alike sit around watching them together. Yet, when it comes to sex, which is not only natural but beautiful and essential for continuing the species, it's treated like something taboo. It basically boils down to this:
taking a life = good
creating life = bad

I see all these moral crusaders acting outraged because ten-year-olds are joining Facebook groups or communities centered around "loving sex." Of course they are! They have those urges, even if they haven't actually acted on them yet. It's a natural instinct, yet we stare at them like they're some kind of freak. What would be better, though? Should we let them develop a murderous instinct instead of a sexual one? Would that be acceptable? In a society where you can watch dozens, even hundreds, of lives being violently snatched away through murder and torture on TV every single day, I don't see why kids wouldn't just start an online group called "I love killing"
. Sure, obviously that wouldn't be okay, but if killing isn't normal, then why is watching violence considered fine? Humanity treats violence as the ultimate mass entertainment. Go ahead, let the kids watch Ram mow down hundreds of people with a machine gun; heaven forbid they catch a glimpse of a man or woman's anatomy, let alone anything intimate. If they do, suddenly everyone starts shouting about morality. The busybodies run to the police or the courts, and religious types start rambling on about hell, damnation, and eternal punishment.

Just imagine a different scenario. Suppose we grew up in a society that didn't view the human body as shameful—where people weren't embarrassed to swim naked in the ocean or walk to the corner store without clothes when it gets hot, simply because they live in a culture that doesn't treat genitals as something sinister. Imagine a world where you might watch a movie with intimacy at 8 PM, or see people being affectionate in soap operas during the day, because sex isn't a taboo. In such a world, sex is seen as what it actually is: a way to create life, something beautiful, fun, healthy, and universally enjoyed.
Then, out of nowhere, some idiot decides to make a movie about brutal murder. That's a fundamentally stupid idea because killing is wrong; it's evil; it involves someone stripping a human being of their life in the most disgusting way possible.
In that hypothetical world, a society raised on intimacy would suddenly be faced with graphic violence for the first time. How do you think they'd react? People would be traumatized, psychiatric wards would overflow, and children wouldn't be able to sleep at night. Of course they would react that way, because witnessing something that is inherently evil and traumatic would be a normal response. But in our current world, we've been conditioned to accept violence as if we were told from birth that eating garbage every day is perfectly fine.
On the flip side, what is actually wrong with sex?

Where did this mindless, idiotic invention come from—this idea that people should be ashamed of their bodies, or that sex should be portrayed in a way that children hitting puberty at eleven or twelve shouldn't see? So, it's "NORMAL" for kids to watch slaughter, but "NOT NORMAL" for them to see a completely natural and acceptable act like basic intercourse that every person on this planet has the right to experience? That makes no sense.

That specific brand of social hypocrisy is honestly what I find most disgusting about everything.
We have murder, which is a crime, and we're allowed to watch it. We have sex, which isn't a crime, and we aren't allowed to watch it.
And really, if a twelve-year-old isn't allowed to see intimacy, why on earth are they allowed to watch a massacre?
Isn't our society just a little bit... retarded!?

Now, look, federal law prohibits selling or showing pornographic content to anyone under 18, and I’m assuming the people drafting these regulations in D.C. have a bit more expertise than we do, so maybe that age limit actually makes sense and serves a purpose. Once you find yourself standing there looking at your own 12-year-old child—assuming you haven't completely forgotten what it was like to be that age—you'll probably realize that at that stage of life, dreaming about a simple kiss or a hug from a crush is much more appropriate given how emotionally immature kids are back then...

It’s the exact same story when it comes to violence; it’s easy to play philosopher and talk about it in the abstract, but trying to manage that influence within your own four walls is a whole different beast, though I suppose you could reduce how much of that stuff gets consumed by simply setting a good example through your own actions rather than just barking orders...

goldenpilot20 said:Wow, you really went there. It sounds like you think someone who didn't go to medical school—but maybe did nursing school instead—could have roughly the same level of knowledge. That feels pretty condescending to me. And as for Family Medicine? I always thought that just meant the same doctor looks after the whole family, or am I missing something?

Comparing the depth of an advanced nurse practitioner's knowledge to that of a physician is honestly pretty immature... everyone goes through their own specific schooling to gain a certain set of skills and carries a specific level of responsibility based on that education. You're probably thinking about the practical skills some of your relatives picked up through years of experience, but experience is really just something built on top of a foundational education, and that foundation for nursing isn't as broad as it is for a doctor. Neither you nor I can sit here and judge the actual competence of a physician because that's something only someone with the same level of education, or perhaps higher, could truly evaluate. I'm aware of that reality, but clearly, you aren't...

Edward Flores4 said:Publishers basically send out these sales reps to woo teachers—they drop off little gifts, sponsor all these weekend trips... it’s a whole production. And then, once they’ve built that rapport, the teachers are the ones actually deciding which textbooks our kids end up using. 😉

It’s totally true, they send over little gifts right before the book orders roll in, or stuff for Christmas, I’ve even heard people say they’re getting laptops now... though apparently, the religion teachers are the only ones left out because they only have one publisher to work with so there isn't any competition, poor things😁... but honestly, if I’m being real, you can see so many changes happening in elementary schools lately, I have a kid in grade school now and I had one ten years ago too, and there is just so much more hands-on work being done with the students, like them actually working through lessons themselves in groups, and so much more field trips for subjects that allow for it, it’s definitely not like the old days where it was just mindless rote memorization of data under the HNOS system

Kenneth Brooks9 said:Honestly, what I really want is to hear from someone actually going through treatment—and maybe get some perspective from someone who isn't even in that world to begin with...

I totally get where you're coming from, you just want someone to give you the green light to keep moving forward, but honestly, I'm worried that the only people who would actually tell you that are the ones who are completely immature and reckless... because what's waiting for you on the other side isn't some paradise, it's more like walking straight into hell...

Megan Barnes3 said:Solid post... but it bugs me how the default advice is always just to walk away. You literally said it yourself: everything is possible if you actually want it. That means there's still hope, right? You shouldn't just give up so easily.

😕Those two points of yours kind of clash. But you're right, they're rare, but they exist. Leaving isn't always the answer... you shouldn't just dump someone the second things get messy. Sometimes you have to fight for a person a little bit.

Standing up for someone is certainly one thing if she were married to him or had kids together... but in her case, in the prime of her youth, burying herself in battles that are almost impossible to win 😢.... I have an example right near me, a woman with three kids and he's stuck on heavy narcotics..... a child who never grows up.... she was once such a beauty, but now, barely forty, she looks like an old woman... that smile vanished from her face a long time ago ...it seemed like such a massive love when they first started dating..... everyone knew he had drug issues.... but over time, his struggle didn't shrink, it just grew larger as life's hardships hit them hard ..... the usual stuff, really ..... for anyone who actually knows how to deal with them.... I wonder what she would decide now if she could turn back the clock... to you, girl, who started this thread, I just hope your emotions don't cloud your vision 🙂

hiddenhound3 said:so apparently, they decided this whole topic wasn't really necessary, since their goal is for the spirit within the PDF file to be completely saturated with spiritual peace.

I just love being filled with that kind of peace... though, I don't personally feel like laughter or a good joke ever threatens it... quite the opposite, actually, because I know that deep down, those moments actually give it a certain sense of depth and breadth...

I'm pretty much a complete newbie here and honestly haven't been super active when it comes to actually posting anything... but I really love the idea of diving into some deeper topics while just chilling out and chatting casually with some music in the background if anyone's feeling the vibe👍